No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The Affectionate Gesture Planner (AGP) is a smartphone application (i.e., “app”) that aims to increase relationship satisfaction for couples in long-term relationships by prompting couples to complete loving acts for each other on a daily basis. The AGP app is informed by concepts from social exchange theory and the investment model (Rusbult, 1983), which predict that increasing the mutual exchange of beneficial investments to the relationship improves the quality and stability of the relationship. The present study is a formative evaluation on the prototype of the AGP app. Based on participant feedback, the AGP app will be improved prior to future trials. Future models of the AGP app will be used to compare the efficacy of using standardized suggestions versus personalized prompts.

This study examined the experience of 140 students in a counselor training program that required students to participate in 10 sessions of individual counseling during their training program in order to increase their self-awareness. Students had the option of fulfilling the requirement through being counseled either by more advanced students within the training program or by mental health professionals outside the program. Results indicated that students in both settings reported a significant increase in their self-awareness. Students who fulfilled the requirement in a setting outside of the counseling program clinics reported a significantly higher increase in self-awareness than those who fulfilled the requirement within the counseling program clinics. Students' reports of increased self-awareness did not vary by their stages of progress through the program. Participants reported significant ethical concerns regarding confidentiality and dual relationships that reportedly reduced the beneficial impact of the counseling experience. Students who fulfilled the counseling requirement within the counseling program clinics experienced significantly greater ethical concerns than did those who fulfilled the requirement outside the program clinics. As with effect on self-awareness, stage in the program was not related to impact of ethical concerns on the required counseling experience. The overwhelming majority (91.4%) of participants supported requiring counselors in training to experience their own personal counseling. The majority of the students (58%) recommended that either a counseling program clinic or somewhere outside the program would be equally acceptable settings for future students to obtain the counseling. Of the remaining students, nearly equal numbers recommended a counseling program clinic (18%) as recommended an outside setting (24%). Potential benefits and costs to requiring individual counseling for counselors in training were examined. Advantages and disadvantages to providing the counseling within program clinics were discussed, as were various options for providing the counseling.

Multicultural education in counselor education is a popular topic among counselor educators and scholars. To date, scholars have focused on understanding the experiences of counselor educators who teach dedicated multicultural courses. However, less attention has been given to other counselor educators who are required by ethical and training standards to address multicultural issues across the curriculum. The purpose of this study was to understand counselor educators’ experiences addressing multicultural issues in courses that do not have a specific multicultural or diversity focus. I used phenomenological methodology to explore the experiences of counselor educators who hold doctoral degrees in counseling or a related field, have taken a multicultural/diversity course in their graduate training, are full-time clinical or tenure-line faculty members in CACREP-accredited programs, and have never taught courses dedicated to multicultural or diversity issues. Twelve participants (six men and six women), ranging in age ranged from 31 to 65, participated in the study. Ten participants identified as White, one African-American, and one Hispanic. The research team identified eight themes: (1) reasons for avoidance, (2) constraints, (3) qualities and practices, (4) educator as a factor in student development, (5) infusion, (6) personal background, (7) awareness of biases and assumptions, and (8) counselor educator responsibility/gatekeeping. Findings from this study will add to the literature regarding infusion of multicultural issues across the curriculum. Additionally, the implications offered will serve as a resource for counselor educators as they experience unique personal and professional challenges when addressing multicultural issues in classrooms beyond the main multicultural or diversity course offered in counseling programs. Implications for this study may lead to development of more focused guidelines on how to increase the increase the comfort of counselor educators as they facilitate multicultural discussions and assist counselors-in-training in working toward cultural competence.

Children in grades one through six who were identified as children from migrant agricultural families in a specific country in South Central Kentucky were compared to non-migrant children in the same specific county. A determination of the educational needs of these migrant children was made by a comparison of their standardized test scores to similar test scores of children from non-migrant families in the areas of Reading, Math, AND Total Battery scores. Resultant data from the test scores indicated that migrant children generally do not have achieve as high academically in the areas tested as do children from non-migrant families. Additional exploration were made concerning the needs of migrant children through a review of the literature. As a result of these data and educational program was recommended for remediation of the indicated educational needs of the subject migrant children. The recommend program includes the employment of qualified staff and continuous training of the staff in working effectively with these children. Recommendations for remedial reading and remedial math classes were also discussed with suggestions for additional programs involving the improvement of home-school-community relationships of migrant families.

The study involved analyzing the counseling services programs in the University of Kentucky Community College System. In addition to this, the study analyzed the academic and professional background of the counselors, determined the present duties and responsibilities of the counselors, and determined the counselors’ perceived ideal duties and responsibilities. The reason for the study was to provide information which can be helpful to different groups concerned with community colleges. Some of the information may be useful to graduate programs concerned with the preparation of counselors who intend to work in community college counseling as a profession, may find that some of this information helps them understand better the general qualifications and role of the counselor. Counselors in the University of Kentucky Community College System may review the data presented and decide that some changes need to be implemented in their counseling services program to better meet the needs of their students.

Counselor educators are continually improving the quality of their training programs. The purpose of the present study was to investigate counseling students’ practicum experiences and development in community-based and department-based settings. The framework for this study was based on Stoltenberg’s integrated developmental model, which describes stages of counselor development and supervision conditions needed for a learning environment (Stoltenberg & Delworth, 1987; Stoltenberg & McNeill, 2010; Stoltenberg, McNeill, & Delworth, 1998) A nation-wide study was conducted utilizing counselor education practicum students enrolled in programs listed in the CACREP program directory (2008) and Counselor Preparation: Programs, Faculty, Trends (12th ed.; Schweiger, Henderson, Clawson, Collins, & Nuckolls, 2008), and subscribed to three listserves COUNSGRAD, CESNET, and COUNSLINK. A total of 435 responses were collected electronically with a completion rate of 70% (N = 305). The Demographic and Experience Questionnaire and the Supervision Level Questionnaire Revised (SLQ-R) were used. The results of this study indicated that practicum students’ experiences differed in community-based versus department-based settings. Students in department-based settings reported their settings were more structured than did students in community-based settings. Students who rated their settings as more structured also reported they were more satisfied with the amount of structure. Direct supervision modalities were utilized more often in department-based settings than in community-based settings. Students in community-based settings were supervised by licensed professional counselors, licensed professional counselor – supervisors, and licensed clinical social workers. Students in department-based settings were supervised by counseling professors, licensed professional counselors, licensed professional counselor – supervisors, and counseling doctoral students. Despite the differences in structure, supervision modalities, and supervisors, practicum students reported similar experiences in client population types and client issues. Additionally, no differences were found in counseling practicum students’ SLQ-R scores in community-based versus department-based settings, and no differences in students’ SLQ-R scores were found in direct supervision in comparison to indirect supervision. The number of supervision modalities used in practicum settings was not related to students’ SLQ-R scores. Significant relationships were found in two of the sub-scales on the SLQ-R: self and others awareness and autonomy with practicum students’ number of credit hours completed.

The purpose of this study was to explore the concerns of parents upon learning about their children’s gay or lesbian sexual orientation from the conceptual framework of attachment theory. Personal and contextual factors such as parents’ attachment anxiety and avoidance, parent and child gender, length of time since disclosure, and parents’ prior interpersonal contact with gay and lesbian person(s) were examined to see how they influence parents’ concerns. Members of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) support groups were electronically surveyed using the Experiences in Close Relationships - Short Form (ECR-S; Wei, Russell, Mallinckrodt & Vogel, 2007) and the Concerns of Parents of Lesbians (COPLAG; Conley, 2011b). A total of 296 parents met the criteria to be considered participants. The results of this study indicated that parental concerns are correlated with attachment anxiety, but not attachment avoidance. There were significant differences in concern levels between parents who reported high levels of interpersonal contact with gay or lesbian people and those who reported low levels. Parents’ concerns were significantly higher for gay sons than for lesbian daughters. Amount of time since disclosure was not found to be a significant factor in parental concerns; however, attachment anxiety and amount of time since disclosure were negatively correlated. Additionally, parents who were aware of their child’s sexual orientation for more than five years reported lower levels of attachment anxiety than parents who were aware of their child’s gay or lesbian sexual orientation for less than five years. Although parent gender was a variable in this study, too few fathers participated, precluding analyses using parent gender. Overall, the results indicate that parents’ concerns about having gay and lesbian children are influenced by both intrapsychic and contextual factors.