The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 2 84 overweight counselor. Fifty-eight (31%) participants completed the second questionnaire version, which described a hypothetical counselor as having average weight. And 61 (32%) of the participants completed the third version of the questionnaire, which described a hypothetical counselor as underweight. Participants responded to all items on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree/ extremely unlikely) to 7 (strongly agree/extremely likely), with seven questions reverse scored. Counselor Trust Subscale. The Counselor Trust subscale of the revised PWS consisted of nine questions focused on skills and competence (e.g., “If my counselor was [overweight/underweight/average weight], I would not trust them,” and “If my counselor was [overweight/underweight/average weight], I would have doubts about their credibility”). Other questions focused on believing the counselor would listen or understand their needs (e.g., “I believe an [overweight/underweight/average weight] counselor would listen carefully to what I have to say”). The scale demonstrated good internal consistency (α = .81) with this sample. Higher scores reflect greater trust in the counselor. Counselor Advice Following Subscale. The Advice Following subscale contained six items. These items indicated making changes to diet, losing weight, and advice in general (e.g., “In general, my counselor’s weight affects whether I listen to their advice” and “If my counselor were [overweight/ underweight/average weight], I would feel embarrassed when talking about losing weight”). Though counselors are not medical doctors, many clients explore topics associated with their bodies, exercise, and overall physical health (e.g., sleep issues, pain management, substance use, and daily routines), indicating relevance to counseling for the survey questions. Higher scores suggest more willingness to follow the advice (counsel) of the counselor. Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was .83 with this sample. Counselor Selection Subscale. The Counselor Selection subscale had seven items indicating a willingness to select the counselor based on their appearance of weight (e.g., “If I went to a new counselor, and the counselor appeared [overweight/underweight/average weight], I would change counselors,” or “If my counselor was [overweight/underweight/average weight], I would not recommend them to my friends”). Similar to the other subscales, higher scores indicate more willingness to select the counselor. For this sample, Cronbach’s alpha was .71. Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire In addition to the revised PWS, participants completed the Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA; Crandall, 1994). The AFA assesses participants’ beliefs about overweight people and their feelings about becoming overweight. Three subscales, Dislike (α = .84), Fear of Fat (α = .79), and Willpower (α = .66), are combined for a composite antifat attitude score. Despite the low Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the Willpower subscale, it positively correlates with the Dislike subscale (r = .43, p < .001), whereas the Fear of Fat subscale remains uncorrelated with both subscales, suggesting discriminate validity (Lacroix et al., 2017; Ruggs et al., 2010). Both the reliability and validity of the AFA have been extensively assessed by researchers, and the AFA has been found to be a psychometrically sound measure (Ruggs et al., 2010). The Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency reliability was acceptable, with a value of .87 for the data used in the current study. Participants indicated agreement (e.g., “I really don’t like fat people much”) on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree), with higher composite scores suggesting stronger negative antifat attitudes. Higher scores may correlate to weight bias toward the overweight counselor. Scores on the Fear of Fat subscale are directed toward a personal antifat fear and not toward others. The AFA was also used to test the equivalence of groups and any effect of social desirability. Lastly, participants completed a voluntary 8-item demographic questionnaire describing their race/ethnicity, age, gender, height, weight, and experience with receiving counseling or having an ED.
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