Do Double Minority Students Face Double Jeopardy? Testing Minority Stress Theory

Data from 2 studies revealed that ethnic and sexual minority clients experienced greater psychological distress on multiple dimensions than did European American or heterosexual clients, respectively, as did ethnic and sexual minority students who were not clients. Among sexual minority students, ethnicity was not an added source of distress. Among ethnic minority students, sexual minority status was associated with heightened psychological distress.     

Counselor Trainees' Perceptions of Clients Based on Client Sexual Orientation

In this analog study, the authors examined how client sexual orientation, counselor trainee homophobia, and counselor trainee gender affected counselor trainees' (N = 162) assignment of positive and negative adjectives to clients. A series of multiple regression analyses revealed that client sexual orientation, counselor trainee gender, and counselor trainee homophobia significantly predicted counselor trainees' perceptions of clients. Implications for counselor training and research are discussed.     

Understanding Clients and Their Environments: A Simulation

Counselors must be made fully aware of the impact of environmental and societal forces on their clients. Counselor education students need knowledge and skill to attend to the pressures and problems of minority groups. The simulation method described in this article encourages students to experience powerlessness, isolation, and few if any options in order to develop a clearer understanding of their clients and environments. The authors discuss applicability of the simulation beyond counselor education programs.     

Ethnocultural Person—Environment Fit and College Adjustment: Some Implications for College Counselors

The authors investigated the relationship between students' ethnocultural person‐environment (P‐E) fit and college adjustment. They hypothesized differences between P‐E fit of ethnocultural minority versus majority students at a predominantly White university but did not expect differences in adjustment. Furthermore, they explored the effects of ethnicity and sex on P‐E fit and adjustment. Findings generally supported the hypotheses. The authors provide recommendations to increase college counselors' effectiveness in working with diverse clients.     

Homophobia in Counselling Practice

Current attitudes of counselling practitioners towards sexual and gender differences raise the possibility that minority clients may experience re-traumatisation due to in-session expressions of therapist homophobia. This paper explores these issues through a qualitative study that examines client and counsellor narratives on homophobia in counselling. The results describe specific examples of homophobic behaviour by counsellors. While individual examples might appear mundane on the surface, the frameworks they invoke and their pervasiveness constitutes a considerable threat to the counselling relationship. The paper argues that homophobia in counselling practice is a significant issue that requires sensitive, critical and applied analysis that redirects therapeutic efforts in the future.     

Sociocultural Factors and Referral Outcome: An Exploratory Investigation

ABSTRACT

One response to increased service needs at university counseling centers has been community provider referrals. However, certain demographic groups may be more successful in these referrals than others. We hypothesized that students who identify as White, female, sexual minority, and older, would be more likely to be successfully referred. Self-reported demographic information was collected from clients at a Mid-Atlantic counseling center. A logistic regression analysis was conducted to test differences in referral status. Age alone emerged as significant, with older students being more likely than younger students to have a successful referral outcome. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Network Orientations of Highly Resilient Urban Minority Youth: A Network-Analytic Account of Minority Socialization and Its Educational Implications

In this article the authors present a critical assessment of existing characterizations of resiliency and help-seeking behavior in light of their relevance to issues of minority youth socialization and schooling. In this effort, they reconceptualize the notion of resiliency within an analysis that highlights the more contextual aspects of how minority adolescent cope with structural forces that threaten healthy development. They show how key developmental transitions are thwarted by social forces that undermine the development of supportive relationships across multiple institutional sites (e.g., family, neighborhood, school). They also explain how resiliency is associated with egocentric networks that exhibit key structural characteristics. The authors conclude by discussing the implications of a critical network-analytic model of minority socialization in the development of future educational and youth mediations and reforms.     

Identifying Best Practice Principles in Working with the Inupiat Eskimo: Building Trust and Beyond

The authors present an examination of established models on trust building issues in multicultural counseling and apply them with the Inupiat Eskimo population. Drawing on the cultural strengths of the Inupiat communities, counselors traverse challenging cultural barriers and develop positive working relationships with families and individual clients within the communities of Alaska. Cultural competence is discussed and guidelines for multicultural counseling are provided. The principles outlined in this paper, whilst developed in this instance in a particular location and cultural context, have relevance for other situations where counseling involving a minority is concerned. The overriding element is working at and maintaining trust, with this being the essential foundation upon which other counseling strategies are implemented.     

Continuity and change in the visions of childhood in head start: Implications for early childhood teacher educators

ABSTRACT

Drawing on an autoethnographic approach, the purpose of this article is to support: 1) teacher educators in thinking about how to mentor sexual minority students as they consider the decision to disclose (or not) their sexual identities in their school placements; and 2) sexual minority students in navigating the decision to disclose (or not) their sexual identities in the context of practicum or student teaching. Early childhood teacher education faculty must be prepared to support sexual minority students in confronting decisions about disclosing their sexual orientation in the context of practicum and student teaching. Though sexual minority educators may choose to seek employment in schools or districts with explicit values about nondiscrimination, preservice teachers may not enjoy similar agency or protection, given that student placements are often dictated by geographic proximity to the university and partnerships with teacher preparation programs.     

Sexual Health Education in Massage Therapy Programs: A Survey of Program Directors

Massage therapy program directors completed an online survey to explore sexual education in massage therapy programs. The overall data suggest that program directors are supportive of sexual health education in the training of massage therapists and that such education is integrated into several aspects of their training programs. To enhance sexual health education, massage therapy programs could collaborate with specialists in sex therapy or sexuality education. Massage therapy training may need to include the following topics: working with clients who have been sexually abused, working with transsexual clients, understanding sexual arousal processes, and understanding dynamics between men and women.     

Worker Perceptions of Effectiveness and Minority-Relevant Education as a Function of Worker and Client Ethnicity

This study explores the relationship between perceived effectiveness of services delivered to minority clients, and the usefulness of education in the delivery of services, as reported by two national samples of social workers. This relationship was examined by using a national sample of minority social workers and a national sample of caucasian social workers, randomly selected from the Membership Directory of the National Association of Social Workers. The results indicate a stronger correlation between effectiveness and educational adequacy for the caucasian sample compared to the minority sample. In addition, the strength of the correlations change over the years. The data also suggest that the proportion of minority clients in a workers caseload results in differential perceptions of understanding of client problems and the presence of value conflicts.     

Organizational Capacity Building for Sexual Health Promotion

We present an organizational capacity building program that is a systemic approach to training professionals, creating organizational policies and practices, and enhancing the physical environment with materials about sexual and reproductive health. The evaluation of four different organizations showed increases over six months in: staff reports of administrative support for providing materials and referrals to clients, as well as having sexual health conversations with clients; positive staff attitudes about, and preparedness for, providing sexual health information; and knowledge about sexual health. All were sustained at twelve months. Environmental enhancement with educational materials and condom distribution also increased.     

Childhood sexual abuse is significantly associated with subsequent sexual offending: New evidence among federal correctional clients

BackgroundAdverse childhood experiences are associated with multiple negative behavioral outcomes and childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is particularly damaging. There is controversial evidence that CSA has a specialized effect on subsequent sexual offending.ObjectiveThe current study tested the hypothesis that CSA is associated with sexual offending.MethodUsing a near-population of correctional clients on supervised release in the Midwestern United States, we examined the hypothesis with hierarchical negative binomial regression models.ResultsCSA was significantly associated with official charges for rape/sexual abuse despite controls for sex, race, age, arrest onset, total arrest charges, total adverse childhood experiences, Antisocial Personality Disorder, sexual sadism, and pedophilia. Age of onset of CSA was also inversely associated with sexual offending with effect sizes ranging between 2–5 standardized z-scores.ConclusionThe current study provides significant evidence that CSA is associated with later sexual offending even when accounting for powerful clinical and criminological covariates.     

Challenging Stereotypes of Eating and Body Image Concerns Among College Students: Implications for Diagnosis and Treatment of Diverse Populations

The authors describe a study that was conducted to provide better understanding of eating and body image concerns among clients in university counseling centers. First, they explored the prevalence of such concerns among stereotype‐congruent (White, heterosexual, female) and stereotype‐incongruent groups (e.g., ethnic/sexual minorities, men). Then, because some groups may use compensatory behaviors not adequately captured by current definitions of eating disorders, they specifically examined body image disturbance among these groups.     

Does Sex Education Help Everyone?: Sex Education Exposure and Timing as Predictors of Sexual Health Among Lesbian,Bisexual, and Heterosexual Young Women

ABSTRACT

Using data from 2002 to 2013 collections of the National Survey of Family Growth, we explored how exposure and timing of sex education were associated with sexual health outcomes of 5,141 women between the ages of 15 and 20 years. Consistent with previous literature, sexual minority (e.g., lesbian and bisexual) women reported engaging in sexual intercourse with a male partner earlier than their heterosexual peers. Sexual minority women were also more likely to receive sex education after already engaging in sexual intercourse. Exposure to sex education was associated with poorer outcomes—such as an increased number of male sexual partners and higher reports of pregnancy—for sexual minority women but not for their heterosexual peers. Receiving sex education before engaging in intercourse was associated with an increase in birth control use among bisexual participants. Therefore, school psychologists and counselors should promote inclusive sex education programs that fully address the needs of sexual minority youth.     

Faculty and Student Perceptions of Dual Relationships Within Counselor Education: A Qualitative Analysis

The authors undertook this study to identify how counselor education faculty and students determine the ethical appropriateness of dilemmas portraying dual relationships in friendships, mentoring, monetary interactions, and romantic‐sexual relationships. Faculty and student perceptions of scenarios that depict dual relationships between faculty and students were assessed and analyzed using qualitative methods. Results suggest that, unlike most students, faculty trust the ability of counselor educators to maintain objectivity and avoid student exploitation even sometimes while engaged in dual‐role relationships. Furthermore, faculty may be unaware of students' concerns regarding the fairness of such relationships and the impact they have on the student body.     

Victimization Disparities Between Heterosexual and Sexual Minority Youth From Ages 9 to 15

Mental health disparities between heterosexual and sexual minority youth are partly explained by the higher rates of victimization experienced by sexual minority youth. The onset and progression of these victimization disparities, however, are poorly understood. Using multirater longitudinal data, trajectories of victimization starting at age 9 were compared among youth who did and did not report same-sex attraction at age 15 (N = 310). Self and teacher, but not primary caregivers, reported victimization was significantly higher among sexual minority youth starting at age 9, but did not vary across time. The findings underscore the importance of understanding homophobic experiences of sexual minority youth during late childhood and early adolescence in order to inform prevention programs.     

An Affective Sexual Awareness Program for Counselors

Most counseling students and counselor educators lack adequate preparation for working with clients who have sexual problems. The authors developed a program to facilitate increased awareness of one's own sexuality as a basis for aiding others in that area. The program emphasizes small group participation in order to provide security to explore sexuality and its effects on interpersonal relationships. The program uses brief videotape vignettes of affective-sexual behaviors of individuals and pairs (heterosexual and same-sexed pairs), followed by group discussion. Interpersonal interaction exercises are used to aid participants in relating to their own sexuality. Overall response to the six presentations reported here has been favorable.     

Sexual Orientation and Adolescent Time Use: How Sexual Minority Youth Spend Their Time

This study combines minority stress and ecological perspectives to theorize the associations between adolescents’ sexual orientation and time use. Hypotheses are tested using data from a national sample of Australian adolescents aged 14–15 years (Longitudinal Study of Australian Children; n = 3,060). Compared to heterosexual adolescents, sexual minority adolescents spent less time with their siblings and fathers, more time alone, less time in active leisure- and school-based activities, and more time in nonactive leisure. There were no differences between sexual minority and heterosexual adolescents in time spent with mothers, peers, and in screen-based leisure. Some associations were gendered. Collectively, the results suggest that sexual minority adolescents may withdraw or be excluded from critical developmental activities and the company of key social partners.     

Are sexual minority youth overrepresented in foster care,child welfare,and out-of-home placement? Findings from nationally representative data

BackgroundPreliminary evidence suggests that sexual minority (e.g. lesbian, gay, bisexual, and same-sex attracted) youth are overrepresented in child welfare services. Yet, no study to date has been able to test this hypothesis with national data.ObjectiveUsing a two-study design, we test whether sexual minority youth are overrepresented in child welfare, foster care, and out-of-home placement using nationally representative data from the United States.Participants and settingStudy 1 data are from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 14,154; Mean age = 15.4). Study 2 data are from wave three of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being II (n = 1309; Mean age = 15.0).MethodsFor Study 1, we use adjusted logistic regression models to test differences in lifetime foster care involvement between sexual minority and heterosexual youth. In Study 2, we calculate a Disproportionality Representation Index (DRI) – a ratio of sample prevalence relative to the general population – to estimate whether sexual minority youth were overrepresented in child welfare and out-of-home care.ResultsStudy 1 results indicate that sexual minority youth are nearly 2.5 times as likely as heterosexual youth to experience foster care placement (aOR = 2.43, 95% CI 1.40, 4.21, p = .002). Results from Study 2 show that sexual minority youth were largely overrepresented in child welfare services (DRI = 1.95–2.48) and out-of-home placement (DRI = 3.69–4.68).ConclusionsFindings are the first to demonstrate sexual minority youth’s overrepresentation in child welfare, foster care, and out-of-home placement using nationally representative data and emphasizes the need for focused research on sexual minority youth involved in the child welfare system.