101 The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 2 created using a three-phase approach to test for content validity in health care education research (St. Marie et al., 2021): 1) Developing the vignette and associated questions, 2) sending the vignette to three experts in counseling and domestic violence research, and 3) testing the revised vignette with a small group of participants that suggested edits for clarity. The Appendix contains the vignette for a female teen client. An identical vignette for a male teen client was also utilized during the study. The only difference in the cases was the identified gender of the client and their partner; names, scenarios, and all non-gendered wording remained the same. We approached this research from a post-structural feminist theoretical lens, conceptualizing TDV as reciprocal and challenging the common sociocultural notions of women as “powerless” and men as “powerful” in a patriarchal society. For this reason, we did not specify the client’s cultural background and used binary gender identities and heterosexual relationships in the case examples. Case vignettes with varying intersecting identities may have elicited other forms of bias, such as internalized homophobia, heteronormativity, gender-normative assumptions, and ethnocentric views, further compounding the dynamics and potentially leading to misinterpretations of the qualitative findings. Our hope is that this study can provide a framework for future research to incorporate additional layers of identity and address existing gaps in the TDV literature. Research Team Positionality The researchers’ experiences, qualities, personalities, or histories can potentially influence qualitative research outcomes (B. Hunt, 2011). Therefore, we engaged in reflexivity throughout the research process to minimize bias during data analysis. Our research team consisted of three cisgender female faculty in counselor education. All are licensed mental health counselors and one is also a licensed marriage and family therapist. We also have diverse counseling experiences in various mental health settings, including schools, university counseling centers, residential treatment facilities, domestic violence shelters and outreach programs, and private practice. Our related research interests include TDV, intimate partner violence, gender issues, sexuality, and culturally responsive approaches to counseling and research. Consistent with the qualitative research process, we continually engaged in dialogue and a self-reflective process to examine personal beliefs and challenge biases in TDV literature to ensure that our positionality did not impede the research process. Data Analysis and Trustworthiness Thematic analysis is a grouping of methods that examines commonalities and differences in research. Theoretically flexible, thematic analysis is a useful and practical approach to counseling research (Clarke & Braun, 2018). In this study, we utilized reflexive thematic analysis to form themes from codes, which were also grouped by major categories based on our questions to participants (Braun & Clarke 2013, 2021). Thematic analysis can also be expansive, ranging from research with rich descriptions to research that aims to describe and summarize (Clarke & Braun, 2018). The recommended steps for a reflexive thematic analysis were followed (Braun & Clarke, 2013, 2021; Clarke & Braun, 2018). We independently reviewed all data for familiarization, which included detailed documentation of thoughts, field notes, and decisions that were made individually. We met weekly to develop initial codes that were placed into a codebook to chart the developing analysis. Per Braun and Clarke’s (2013) recommendations, we set the data into central organizing concepts or categories to communicate and develop the themes. Within each category, we further grouped data by gender of the client to assess gender normative assumptions that may be guiding counseling students’ decision-making processes. Meetings took place over 6 weeks (one category per week) to discuss and group initial overarching themes for each vignette. Once this phase was complete, the themes were refined, defined, and named; the outcome was a final report.
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