Opportunities for Action: Traditionally Marginalized Populations and the Economic Crisis

Oct 6, 2014 | Article, Volume 4 - Issue 4

Kevin A. Tate, Kathleen M. Fallon, Elaine J. Casquarelli, Laura Reid Marks

This study investigated the career and work life challenges faced by traditionally marginalized populations (e.g., women; historically oppressed racial/ethnic groups; people who identify as lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and/or queer; immigrants; individuals with mental or physical disabilities; older individuals; and those of lower socioeconomic status) in the United States during the troubled and lagging economy that began with the economic crisis in 2008. Further, this study was designed to explore action steps that could be used to address these challenges. The results of this study suggested that although marginalized populations face many significant challenges, there are actions that career development professionals can take in the near future to address these challenges. Implications for practice, training, theory, research, social justice and advocacy are provided.

Keywords: career development, marginalized populations, social justice, economic crisis, socioeconomic status

The current economic climate has taken a significant toll on millions of individuals in the United States. This economic climate was precipitated by the collapse of the housing market (Rothstein, 2012) and has significantly impacted the work experience and employment status of many individuals in the United States (Jacobe, 2012; U.S. Census Bureau, 2006, 2009, 2013). Although a broad range of populations have experienced such career development problems associated with this economic context, the economic circumstances have impacted traditionally marginalized populations more dramatically than others (Rothstein, 2012; U.S. Census Bureau, 2006, 2009, 2013). For the purposes of this study, the term traditionally marginalized populations was defined broadly to include many historically oppressed groups including women; certain racial/ethnic groups; people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ); immigrants; individuals with mental or physical disabilities; older individuals; and those of lower socioeconomic status prior to the onset of the current economic climate (Constantine, Hage, Kindaichi, & Bryant, 2007; Savage, Harley, & Nowak, 2005; Vera & Speight, 2003).

While there is ample knowledge about marginalized populations regarding their overall career- and work-related challenges (e.g., Adams, Cahill, & Ackerlind, 2005; Badgett, Lau, Sears, & Ho, 2007; Blustein, 2006; Cook, Heppner, & O’Brien, 2002; Coombs & King, 2005; Gottfredson, 2005; Hackett & Betz, 1981; Lapour & Heppner, 2009; Schmidt & Nilsson, 2006; West-Olatunji et al., 2010), a gap exists in the literature concerning the particular challenges they face in the context of the current economic climate. This gap in knowledge leaves career counselors and counselor educators without an empirical foundation for addressing the particular career development needs of such populations in this troubled economic climate, making it difficult for counselors to respond to calls and implement concrete social justice interventions and actions (Hansen, 2003; Metz & Guichard, 2009; Pope, 2003). Such knowledge would make it possible for career counselors and counselor educators to take evidence-based action to address these problems and allow the field of career counseling to continue in its tradition of social action in solidarity with marginalized populations (Hartung & Blustein, 2002; Stebleton & Eggerth, 2012). As such, the purpose of this study was to investigate the career- and work-related challenges that traditionally marginalized populations face in the context of the current economic climate. Secondly, and more importantly, this study investigated actions that career counselors and counselor educators might take to address these challenges.

A unique challenge of investigating a fluid, dynamic context such as the current economic climate is the need to apply a research methodology that accounts for its time-sensitive, shifting nature. Given this context, the authors used the Delphi methodology (Linstone & Turoff, 1975; Skulmoski, Hartman, & Krahn, 2007; Vázquez-Ramos, Leahy, & Hernández, 2007). This approach to research was designed to integrate expert opinion about complex issues at the forefront of a field with experts’ forecasts about what might occur regarding such issues in the future. While there is no published research about the topic of this study, the authors connected with experts who have knowledge of this issue. Specifically, the authors asked experts to describe the experiences of traditionally marginalized populations in the context of the current economic climate and to provide suggestions for ways to address these challenges. Although there would be great value in directly asking members of marginalized populations about their career development, it would take an enormous amount of time to investigate the career development challenges faced by such a diverse range of individuals within the current economic climate. This poses a problem in that, by the time such a research agenda was completed, the economic climate might have already made a significant turn for the better, thus making such studies outdated in terms of their immediate applicability. The authors certainly recognize the worth and cultural relevance of interviewing marginalized individuals themselves about their lived experiences, but they also recognize the need to collect and analyze data in a way that allows for timely implementation of the results. Therefore, the authors chose the Delphi methodology in order to collect empirical evidence in a manner that will provide concrete suggestions for action before the economic climate has shifted beyond the scope of such evidence. Before addressing the current economic crisis, however, it is important to discuss first what is known about the career- and work-related challenges that traditionally marginalized populations generally face.

Career and Work Challenges of Traditionally Marginalized Populations

Although the United States provides vast opportunities for success in career and work pursuits, these opportunities are not and have not been equally accessible to all people (Blustein, 2006; Blustein, McWhirter, & Perry, 2005; Burns, 2009; Fouad, 2006; Metz & Guichard, 2009). Further, even when those who have been afforded less societal and cultural privilege are able to access such opportunities, their success and achievements may not be recognized in an equitable manner (Badgett et al., 2007; Coombs & King, 2005; Fouad et al., 2008; Juntunen et al., 2001). The following are examples that represent inequalities faced by traditionally marginalized populations throughout their career development process.

On a systemic level, social norms and structures shape traditionally marginalized individuals’ experiences of career and work in ways that disadvantage them in future career pursuits (Adams et al., 2005; Gottfredson, 2005; Lapour & Heppner, 2009; Martín-Baró, 1994; West-Olatunji et al., 2010). During childhood and adolescence, marginalized populations experience a lack of support and resources for pursuing higher education (Adams et al., 2005; Blustein, 2006; Deil-Amen & DeLuca, 2010) and are less likely to finish high school (Greene & Winters, 2005), which is problematic given the relationship between educational attainment and the likelihood of future employment (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006, 2009, 2013). Members of such populations who go on to higher education in pursuit of their career goals face further difficulties and barriers (e.g., sexism, racism, financial constraints, conflicts between their own cultures and the dominant culture; Fouad et al., 2008; Guiffrida & Douthit, 2010; Juntunen et al., 2001). During the job search, marginalized populations experience discrimination in terms of equal opportunity for employment (Stuart, 2006; Yakushko, Watson, & Thompson, 2008); and once employed, they face ongoing discrimination and barriers to success in the workplace (Badgett et al., 2007; Coombs & King, 2005; Werth, Borges, McNally, Maguire, & Britton, 2008). Such career-related difficulties have been explained through social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), which posits that contextual affordances (e.g., social networks and income) and personal inputs (e.g., gender and race/ethnicity) have a significant impact on individuals’ career development and choice process (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 2000). For example, being female (personal input) may affect one’s ability to be considered qualified for traditionally masculine careers; and having a lower socioeconomic status (contextual affordance) may result in one lacking a professional network that provides adequate career networking options. While these examples and theoretical postulations do not capture the entirety of the career development marginalization that traditionally marginalized populations experience, they do illustrate the realities that such populations face in American society. These oppressive circumstances also are apparent within and exacerbated by the current economic crisis.

Traditionally Marginalized Populations and the Current Economic Climate

In December 2007, the United States experienced a significant economic contraction. Due to risky subprime mortgage loan practices, many banks had to be saved from bankruptcy; they utilized public and private funds, including a federal bailout under the Bush administration. Between 2007 and 2009, the gross domestic product fell over 5% and millions of individuals lost their homes and jobs. The United States economy continues to languish as a result of this economic crash (Rothstein, 2012). Among the many systemic implications of these events, the unemployment rate increased nationally from 4.4% to 10% between 2007 and 2009. While there is a gap in the literature regarding the ways that this crisis has affected traditionally marginalized populations’ career- and work-related experiences, national unemployment statistics (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006, 2009, 2013) provide partial illustration of such inequalities. For each ensuing population category, the unemployment rates will be depicted parenthetically as follows: (2006 annual rate, 2009 annual rate, March 2013 rate), in order to show the rates before the crisis began, the rates after the crisis began and the current rates in a compatible fashion. The overall unemployment rate (4.6%, 9.3%, 7.6%) masks stark contrasts in the rates for those who identified as White (4.0%, 8.5%, 6.7%), African American (8.9%, 14.8%, 13.3%) and Hispanic/Latino (5.2%, 12.1%, 9.2%), and those who reported having a disability (no data for 2006, 14.5%, 7.4%). The rates also are quite different among those who did not complete high school (6.8%, 14.6%, 11.1%), those with a high school diploma (4.3%, 9.7%, 7.6%), those who completed some college (3.6%, 8.0%, 6.4%) and those who completed a bachelor’s degree (2.0%, 4.6%, 3.8%). Finally, single mothers’ unemployment rate (7.1%, 11.5%, 10.7%) is much higher than that of women who report cohabiting with a spouse (3.1%, 6.3%, 4.7%). While one may assume that similar differentials might exist for LGBTQ individuals, immigrants and those of lower socioeconomic status, the United States Department of Labor does not report data in a manner that would allow such comparisons. Further, research has suggested that, in combination, such factors of identity and context as those listed above create further disparities in the unemployment rate (Ewing, Levernier, & Malik, 2005).

These patterns highlight significant concerns. There seems to be consistent disparity in unemployment rates across marginalized groups throughout the economic crisis, as evidenced by the statistics reported by the Department of Labor. Given that unemployment has a negative psychological impact on individuals (Blustein, Medvide, & Wan, 2011; Paul & Moser, 2009), this disparity in unemployment suggests the possibility that marginalized groups experience higher rates of mental health consequences. For example, Paul and Moser (2009) conducted a meta-analysis to determine what is known about the connection between employment status and mental health status. Their work revealed a significant connection between unemployment and poor mental health.

Although these data illustrate employment and work-related concerns of marginalized populations, the data fall short of providing knowledge that would offer particular direction to career counselors and counselor educators in service of improving the career development of traditionally marginalized populations. This gap in knowledge leaves professionals without empirical foundation for addressing the particular career development needs of these populations in this economic climate, making it difficult for counselors to respond to calls for concrete social justice interventions and actions (Hansen, 2003; Metz & Guichard, 2009; Pope, 2003).

Career Development Interventions for Traditionally Marginalized Populations

The National Career Development Association (NCDA, 2009b) has mandated that career counselors be competent in addressing the unique cultural and contextual challenges that their clients face. Furthermore, one of the founders of the career development and counseling professions, Frank Parsons, focused squarely on empowering poor and marginalized individuals (Hartung & Blustein, 2002), many of whom were recent immigrants (Stebleton & Eggerth, 2012), to find stable and meaningful work. Parsons desired to work with such populations given his belief that “wealth and power were unequally distributed throughout society” (Hartung & Blustein, 2002, p. 44). Many authors have proposed that culturally and contextually relevant career development practices be used with traditionally marginalized populations (Guiffrida & Douthit, 2010; Hansen, 2003; Pope, 2003; Trainor, Lindstrom, Simon-Burroughs, Martin, & Sorrells, 2008; West-Olatunji et al., 2010). For example, Blustein et al. (2010) suggested that “career development education programs include specific attention to issues pertaining to race, culture, and ethnicity” (p. 253). While such suggestions likely have merit and relevance within the current economic crisis, they have not specifically addressed the career- and work-related challenges of traditionally marginalized populations in this economic climate. As such, the purpose of the present study was to investigate ways in which the troubled economic environment in the United States has affected traditionally marginalized populations in the service of identifying action steps that career counselors and counselor educators might take to address such issues.

Methods

The present study followed the original guidelines for Delphi research (Linstone & Turoff, 1975; Skulmoski et al., 2007; Vázquez-Ramos et al., 2007), as well as the Delphi model offered by Fish and Busby (1996). This model includes recruiting experts in the target domain area and asking open-ended questions regarding their scope of expertise. In later stages of the Delphi process, participants rank the importance of each idea that the pool of experts have generated collectively. We, the authors, recruited individuals with expertise about the career development experience of marginalized populations and asked these experts to take part in the Delphi process.

There is no definite technique for choosing experts within the Delphi method (Fish & Busby, 1996; Linstone & Turoff, 1975; Skulmoski et al., 2007; Vázquez-Ramos et al., 2007). Due to the need to account for both theoretical and applied aspects of this complex topic, the authors sought to recruit both scholars and practitioners who are experts on the career development of traditionally marginalized populations (Fish & Busby, 1996). Once the study received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for this study, the first step in the recruitment process involved identifying and contacting individuals who are considered experts in this area.

Expertise in this area was evidenced by 20 or more refereed publications about the career development of marginalized populations, as well as a clearly demonstrated commitment to improving the lived experiences of such populations (i.e., scholarship that is intended to improve community/client career development and work contexts). For example, one of the experts targeted for this study conducted studies about marginalized K–12 students’ career development, the process and results of which have direct benefits for this population. The authors chose a minimum of 20 publications for inclusion of participants in order to set a high bar for the experts, while also allowing for the inclusion of relatively new scholars in the career development field. Initial criteria were set very high because the next step in the recruitment process involved asking these experts to nominate other scholars and practitioners who also are experts in the target area. The authors used this nomination process based on the notion that such experts would be qualified to nominate other experts in their field (Fish & Busby, 1996; Linstone & Turoff, 1975; Skulmoski et al., 2007; Vázquez-Ramos et al., 2007). The authors identified four individuals who met the two inclusion criteria, and two of them agreed to participate in the nomination and data collection process. These two experts had a significant number of refereed publications (35; 54) that addressed the career development of traditionally marginalized populations. These experts consequently nominated 22 individuals, and 12 of those individuals who were identified agreed to participate in and completed this study.

Because the Delphi method relies heavily on expert opinion, the authors collected detailed descriptions of the experts’ backgrounds (the experts themselves provided the ensuing terminology for gender, race/ethnicity and professional identity). Experts had a mean of 23.17 and a median of 24 years of experience in the field of career development, with a range of 4–45 years. Experts’ racial/ethnic identification included two as African American, one as Hispanic, one as White/Polish American and eight as White/Caucasian. Ten identified as female/woman and two as male. Seven experts identified themselves as scholars, and five identified as practitioners. These experts’ research and/or service provision was focused on a broad range of populations and backgrounds including diversity in race, ethnicity, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, educational background, age and ability status. In terms of geographic regions, one individual worked in the South, two worked in the West, two worked in the Midwest, and seven worked in the Northeast. Two experts worked primarily in a suburban context, two worked in a rural/suburban context and eight worked in an urban context.

Data Collection and Analysis

As outlined by Fish & Busby’s (1996) use of the Delphi method, this study involved three rounds of data collection and analysis.

     Round one. The first round of this study was designed to capture qualitative data that reflected expert opinions. This data was collected electronically via an online survey platform. In order to create a refined data collection process, an initial survey was piloted with three individuals (a counselor educator with expertise in the career development of marginalized populations, a counselor education doctoral student who worked extensively with first-generation college students, and a counseling psychologist with expertise in the Delphi method and qualitative research). These questions were as follows:

1. What are the most significant career development and work issues experienced by traditionally marginalized populations as a result of the current economic climate?
2. What can career counselors and the career development profession do to effectively address these challenges?

The authors considered the data collected via this pilot survey and interviewed the three individuals about their experience taking the survey. Based on the feedback and responses from the pilot study, question 1 above was split into two questions, as the original question did not yield a clear differentiation between general career development concerns and career development issues related to the current economic climate. The following three items were generated based on this pilot testing process:

1. In your own work, what are the most significant career development and work issues experienced by traditionally marginalized populations?
2. Please discuss the issues you described in the previous question as they relate to the current economic climate.
3. Please provide suggestions about how career counselors and the career development profession could effectively respond to the issues you have just described.

Given this new question format, question 1 provided a control to prevent confounding data collection, but also allowed the investigation of expert opinion about this topic.

The data collected from these three qualitative questions were analyzed using qualitative description (QD). Sandelowski (2000, 2010) described QD as a research design that stays close to the data. Researchers cannot really divorce themselves from interpretation in the analysis process; however, in QD, researchers seek low inference interpretations and use content analysis to develop thick descriptions of participants’ experiences and perspectives. In other words, researchers analyze the data with the intent to giving voice to the research participants, as opposed to interpreting the data through the researchers’ vantage point. As opposed to other qualitative methods such as Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), the purpose of QD is not to analyze data with the goal of creating theoretical models. Rather, the goal of QD is to simply describe qualitative data in a way that is concise, rich and thorough. The authors specifically chose the QD method since their goal was to describe participants’ viewpoints rather than making theoretical inferences about their viewpoints. The authors also attempted to increase the trustworthiness of the analysis by arriving at a consensus about the results of the analysis at each stage as described below.

Three researchers (the first, second, and third authors) used QD to analyze data collected by round 1 participants, all of whom possessed both privileged and marginalized identities. Of these three researchers, two were female, one was male; one identified as heterosexual, two identified as lesbian; two were first-generation college students and one was formerly homeless. Each researcher read the raw data and created codes for each discrete idea that occurred within participants’ responses to the questions. These three researchers then met as a team to discuss and reach a consensus about how to delineate complete ideas and what codes should be associated with each of the ideas.

The end result was a list of codes that described each discrete idea that the respondents presented. These codes were then consolidated with other similar codes, which resulted in a list of categories. The categories represented a more complete description of the similar ideas presented across participants. Finally, these categories were organized into larger themes that better arranged the data for the purpose of review and description. No idea or category was given more or less weight in this process. Rather, the goal was to capture and describe all ideas that the participants presented with as minimal repetition of content as possible.

     Round two. The results from the qualitative analysis of question 3 (“Please provide suggestions about how career counselors and the career development profession could effectively respond to the issues you have just described”) were used to create a survey. The creation of such a survey is consistent with the Delphi method (Linstone & Turoff, 1975; Skulmoski et al., 2007; Vázquez-Ramos et al., 2007) and is intended to provide an avenue for experts to rate the relative importance of the issues they have put forward as a group. Questions 1 and 2 were not used to create a ranked survey because question 1 was used as a control question, and results from neither question 1 nor 2 would benefit from ranking (e.g., it is not beneficial to rank the relative importance of gender or racial discrimination). Consequently, the resulting quantitative survey consisted of 18 action items, which emerged from responses to question 3. These items represented action steps that the experts proposed as means of addressing the career development challenges that traditionally marginalized populations face in the context of the current economic crisis. Experts were asked to rate each item on a scale of 1 (long-term) to 5 (immediate). Long-term referred to items that should be addressed within 10 years and immediate referred to items that should be addressed within 1 year. These data were analyzed by calculating the mean and the interquartile range (IQR; i.e., variance) for each item, which were then used in the third and final round of data collection.

     Round three. The resulting analysis from round two was used to create a personalized survey for each of the expert respondents. Each expert received a form that gave the group mean and IQR for each action step item on the survey. This final step prompted the experts to reconsider their original answers in light of the average and variability of their expert peers’ responses. This stage of the Delphi method is intended to move experts towards consensus, while avoiding group pressures that might occur in a face-to-face format. The results of this round were once again analyzed to determine the mean and IQR.

Results

This study yielded two types of results. First, unranked qualitative categories and themes emerged based on expert opinions about the most pressing career development issues that traditionally marginalized populations face as a result of the current economic crisis. Second, ranked qualitative categories and themes were developed based on experts’ suggestions for action steps to alleviate those career development issues.

Questions 1 & 2 – Career Development Challenges

Based on the authors’ qualitative analysis of questions 1 and 2, the responses to both questions fell into one of five themes: Systemic—General, Systemic—Population-Specific, Systemic Impact on the Individual, Individual—General or Individual—Population-Specific. The one exception to this pattern is that no data from question 2 fell into the Individual—Population-Specific theme. These themes and associated categories are detailed in the Appendix. The Systemic—General theme was characterized by career development issues that are embedded in systemic structures and dynamics. The Systemic—Population-Specific theme included categories that were systemic in nature, but referred to a particular population or group. The Systemic Impact on the Individual theme represented categories that detailed the effects that systemic dynamics have on individuals. The Individual—General theme contained categories that described career development challenges that individuals from all marginalized populations face. The Individual—Population-Specific theme was characterized by career development challenges that particular groups or populations face. While we could give significant time and space to analyzing these themes, the purpose of this study is primarily to inform possible action steps. As such, these results are provided in summary form (see Appendix) as context for the action steps that the experts suggested. Specifically, the reader may use them to evaluate the viewpoints, mind frames and knowledge sets of the participants who recommended these actions.

Question 3 – Action Steps

The authors’ qualitative analysis of question 3 yielded four action step themes: Practice, Training, Theory & Research and Advocacy. There were a total of 18 categories across all of these themes, which we transformed into items to create a survey for experts. As detailed in the Methods section, this survey was sent out over two rounds of data collection to determine experts’ collective rating of these items and to attempt to create a consensus among these experts. In addition to the ranked items, experts also ranked the relative importance of the four themes (Practice, Training, Theory & Research and Advocacy) that emerged from the authors’ qualitative analysis of question 3. The resulting list, ranked by importance in terms of time-to-action on a scale of 1 (long-term, considered less urgent) to 5 (immediate, considered more urgent), is presented in Table 1. This table also includes averages and variations of participants’ responses from both rounds of data collection. Beyond the relative importance that experts placed on these items, some interesting patterns should be noted about the final rankings. Six of the top 11 items were Practice items, which is consistent with the top ranking of the Practice category overall (see Table 2). Training-related actions were ranked first and second on the list, which suggests the high importance of training future career counselors about the plight of traditionally marginalized populations in the context of the current economic climate. While not prevalent at the top of the list, the highest ranked Advocacy item suggested that the career development profession take an inward look at its history in service of informing future actions. As one expert stated, “I often think that paying attention to the roots of the career counseling profession in terms of the social reform movements of the last century would help the current field find its passion and mission for advocacy.” Theory & Research items also were not prevalent at the top of the list. Interestingly, though, the highest ranked item of this category was not about a particular theory, but rather was a suggestion to expand all theories to include traditionally marginalized populations’ lived experiences. Finally, the lowest ranked item on the list had a mean of 3.45. Given the scale (1 [long-term] to 5 [immediate]), experts believed that all 18 of the items should be addressed at some point by the career counselors and counselor educators.

Table 1

Ranked Action Steps

Table 2

General Theme Ranking

Discussion

The first discussion point surrounds the experts’ view on the career development challenges that traditionally marginalized populations face, both in general and in the context of the economic crisis. Experts expressed the opinion that the career development challenges that traditionally marginalized populations face occur at both individual and systemic levels. Furthermore, they suggested that there are issues relevant across all marginalized populations, as well as issues unique to particular populations. When considering these findings in tandem with the experts’ broad range of research/practical experience working with diverse populations, one may assume that the action steps the experts proposed are based on wide-reaching and comprehensive understandings of the career development of marginalized populations. Furthermore, these findings align with professional understandings of career-related cultural competence (NCDA, 2009a, 2009b) and the systemic nature of social justice and social inequity issues (Lewis, Arnold, House, & Toporek, 2002).

In order to provide context for interpreting experts’ suggestions for action, it may be helpful to reflect on how they viewed the nature of the current economic crisis in terms of the career development of traditionally marginalized populations. All of the participants believed that the current economy has exacerbated the challenges that this population faced before the crisis began. One expert reflected as follows:

The current economic crisis has made each of these issues [that were present before the crisis] more pronounced. Resources within education systems are stretched thinner. Support programs are triaged. Teachers are dealing with larger class sizes and fewer possibilities for connected interactions with students. Parents are stressed and anxious; many work longer hours and thus are home supervising less and have little time to advocate for their children’s educational needs. Others face the health and mental health consequences of unemployment and are less able to support their children emotionally and intellectually, as well as financially.

In addition, some experts believed that the economic crisis also has resulted in unique challenges for marginalized populations that were not necessarily present before the crisis began. For example, one expert stated the following:

The realities of constrained budgets are juxtaposed with efforts to use the current situation to carry out anti-immigrant agendas in the name of preserving quality and, more outrageous, “preserving unity” (I refer to Arizona’s efforts to ban Chicano and Latino studies because they are “separatist” and “foment hate”).

Another expert suggested the following: “There is increased discrimination against all marginalized populations, especially those individuals of color and older workers … Scarcity of [employment] opportunity breeds hatred, blame, resentment, distrust.”

Given the apparent credibility of these experts’ opinions, as well as their acknowledgement of general and unique features of this economic climate, the authors now turn to their opinions about action steps. Upon reviewing this list, it seems that many of these items would be relevant both before and after the economic crisis, while others may have a unique purpose within the crisis. For example, the top ranked item (“increase knowledge, awareness and counseling skills in regard to contextual and cultural factors’ influence on the career development of traditionally marginalized populations”) might be considered best practice based on common training standards (Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs [CACREP], 2009; NCDA, 2009a, 2009b) at any time; while one of the items tied for second (“increase knowledge of economic systems and their effect on clients’ career development”) might be considered a suggestion specific to the current economic crisis. As one expert asserted, “Career professionals need to be trained in macroeconomics and global business so they understand trends and can adequately train/inform their clients throughout the course of their career development.” This call for an understanding of economics is certainly not new in the career development literature (Blustein, 2006), but is not present in training standards for counselors (CACREP, 2009) or career counselors (NCDA, 2009a, 2009b).

In terms of the ranking of the general categories, it is of interest that Theory & Research was ranked lowest of the general categories. While this is speculation, the experts in this study may have believed that current theory could be expanded to include the plight of marginalized populations (the highest ranked item in this category indicated as much), and that efforts would be more appropriately focused on using current theory to better train career counselors and serve clients. For example, Social Cognitive Career Theory certainly is “flexible” enough to address this topic through the concepts of contextual affordances and personal inputs (Lent et al., 2000), and a large body of existing research does just that. So it seems that experts are more focused on putting research and theory into practice than on developing new theories and findings.

Suggestions for Action

The remaining question is how this list can best be used to take action. In a general sense, this question might be better framed in terms of professional and organizational strategic planning. Given the purview of one’s career counseling practice or educational influence, how might this list aid in strategically choosing actions that can support the career development of traditionally marginalized populations? For example, career counseling centers in higher education settings might consider the Practice and Training items the most relevant and accessible items from this list. Private practice counselors working in geographic areas where English is not the most common language might act on the item suggesting that it is important to have multilingual methods for communicating these resources to clients (e.g., having Spanish language materials for English as a Second Language clients). Specifically, one expert suggested that those in private practice should “develop a library of Spanish language resources, websites, etc. relevant to educational and vocational development, options, etc.” Board members of organizations such as the NCDA might view this entire list as a model for strategically addressing the needs of traditionally marginalized populations by deploying its resources and networks to correspond with the ranking of the four thematic categories (Practice, Training, Theory & Research and Advocacy).

While this list can be used to generate actions unique to organizations and practice areas, it may also be helpful to return to some specific suggestions that experts made within these 18 categories. For example, in regard to the top ranked item (“increase knowledge, awareness and counseling skills in regard to the influence of contextual and cultural factors on the career development of traditionally marginalized populations”), one expert suggested the following:

More education and professional development for career counselors and practitioners is also useful, especially dissemination of research and practice implications related to the specific populations. For example, many counselors or others in the field know little about the career or work issues of transgender people (especially in the context of more competition for fewer jobs, as well as increased competition once hired), and would be better able to serve and advocate for them if they themselves were more informed.

In regard to one of the items tied for second place (“career counseling and programming should be culturally and contextually relevant to various traditionally marginalized populations [e.g., involving networking, mentor development, career knowledge and experiential learning] and should be developed in partnership with these populations when possible”), one expert said the following:

At the community level, counselors may be involved in public education—in facilitating communities in identifying needs and accessing resources that may be used by the whole community, including but not limited to facilitating a forum for the voices of communities to reach policy makers as well as influence services, programs and grants.

In relation to the Training item addressing the legal rights of marginalized groups (“increase knowledge of legal regulations and protections that apply to traditionally marginalized populations”), one participant focused on training for both counselors and employers:

Career counselors need to be well educated about the regulations governing people in these groups and the kinds of protections the laws offer. Employers definitely need to be better educated about the laws as well as provided with examples of how international or disabled candidates are valued employees.

This quote also refers to another action item calling for advocacy in relation to educating employers about the value of marginalized populations.

In any case, this list should be interpreted in light of how any one individual or organization is able to address the population(s) being served. Each professional and organization has a unique array of opportunities, social networks, skill sets and constraints. Given that all items on this list were ranked to reflect relatively high importance, there is no “wrong” item from this list on which to act. Rather, by working together across contexts and organizations, it may be possible for counselors to enact all of these items by using their unique resources and talents.

Limitations of This Study

This study has several limitations. First, by asking career development experts instead of directly asking marginalized populations, this study is skewed toward expert-based models of understanding and their collective assumptions. This may exclude important nuances for particular populations. Second, the majority of the experts identified as White and female, which may bias the results of this study due to factors of personal identity. Finally, the majority of the experts worked and focused their research primarily in urban contexts, and most of them worked in the Northeast. This factor may bias the results in terms of geographic region and context due to unique family or social norms.

Areas for Future Research

Areas for future research can be found in the Theory & Research action items suggested in this study. First, experts recommended “expand[ing] the vision of theory and research in the field of career development to include those who have been typically left out of the career development narrative.” This suggestion is an echo of previous authors’ assertions that career development theories are biased toward more privileged populations (Gysbers, Heppner, & Johnston, 2003). Models such as Blustein’s (2006) or Byars-Winston and Fouad’s (2006) might be considered efforts on this front, and researching such models is one possible method of acting on this suggestion. These models call for career counselors to place in the fore issues of context and culture, rather than considering culture an afterthought to traditional career counseling methods.

     Second, experts suggested that “new and effective interventions should be developed in order to increase critical consciousness and skill development among marginalized clients.” Increasing critical consciousness is a particular suggestion that invokes the need to raise clients’ awareness of their sociopolitical position in society (Freire, 1970; Martín-Baró, 1991, 1994), and therefore is a call to develop interventions which attend to clients’ lived experiences of marginalization and discrimination. Research methods such as participatory action research (PAR; Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007; Kidd & Kral, 2005) may be particularly well-suited for such efforts, given this method’s combination of intervention and action in collaboration with clients. PAR is different from traditional research in that research participants take part in developing research questions, collecting data, analyzing data and using the results to make substantive changes in their context. For example, in a community where African American unemployment is very high (Levine, 2012), career counselors or researchers could pursue such individuals in a practice of investigation that engages them in the research process. Such a study might begin by facilitating a discussion around a question such as, “What questions should we be asking to figure out how to improve your chances for employability in this community?” A researcher might form concrete research questions to shape the study, but community members would drive the focus. All those involved would then collect data, analyze it and see what could be done with the answers to effect change.

Finally, experts suggested that “new delivery models will need to be developed in order to make up for a shortage of career development professionals.” This is a very pragmatic suggestion that may be necessary to fulfill the needs of clients in both this and any future economic crises. As such, researchers, scholars and professional counseling organizations should consider methods for collaboration in service of meeting this call. Although there has been recent collaboration in the counseling profession on this front (Hansen, 2000), there remains much work to be done. In addition to collecting experts’ suggestions, further research should be carried out that captures the voices and experiences of traditionally marginalized populations. Although asking experts about such topics provided an efficient and systematic method of inquiry within a fluid and changing context, future researchers should collect data directly from these populations.

References

Adams, E. M., Cahill, B. J., & Ackerlind, S. J. (2005). A qualitative study of Latino lesbian and gay youths’ experiences with discrimination and the career development process. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 66, 199–218. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2004.11.002

Badgett, M. V. L., Lau, H., Sears, B., & Ho, D. (2007, June). Bias in the workplace: Consistent evidence of sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. Retrieved from http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Badgett-Sears-Lau-Ho-Bias-in-the-Workplace-Jun-2007.pdf

Blustein, D. L. (2006). The psychology of working: A new perspective for career development, counseling, and public              

            policy. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Blustein, D. L., McWhirter, E. H., & Perry, J. C. (2005). An emancipatory Communitarian approach to vocational development theory, research and practice. The Counseling Psychologist, 33, 141–179. doi:10.1177/0011000004272268

Blustein, D. L., Medvide, M. B., & Wan, C. M. (2011). A critical perspective of contemporary unemployment policy and practices. Journal of Career Development, 39, 341–356. doi:10.1177/0894845310397545

Blustein, D. L., Murphy, K. A., Kenny, M. E., Jernigan, M., Pérez-Gualdrón, L., Castañeda, T., … & Davis, O. (2010). Exploring urban students’ constructions about school, work, race, and ethnicity. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57, 248–254. doi:10.1037/a0018939

Burns, S. T. (2009). Legacy of the Vocational Bureau of Cincinnati: Research advances social justice. The Career Development Quarterly, 57, 237–247. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2009.tb00109.x

Byars-Winston, A. M., & Fouad, N. A. (2006). Metacognition and multicultural competence: Expanding the culturally appropriate career counseling model. The Career Development Quarterly, 54, 187–201. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2006.tb00151.x

Constantine, M. G., Hage, S. M., Kindaichi, M. M., & Bryant, R. M. (2007). Social justice and multicultural issues: Implications for the practice and training of counselors and counseling psychologists. Journal of Counseling and Development, 85, 24–29. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2007.tb00440.x

Cook, E. P., Heppner, M. J., & O’Brien, K. M. (2002). Career development of women of color and white women: Assumptions, conceptualization, and interventions from an ecological perspective. The Career Development Quarterly, 50, 291–305. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2002.tb00574.x

Coombs, A. A. T., & King, R. K. (2005). Workplace discrimination: Experiences of practicing physicians. Journal of the National Medical Association, 97, 467–477.

Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. (2009). 2009 CACREP standards. Alexandria, VA: Author.

Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2007). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Deil-Amen, R., & DeLuca, S. (2010). The underserved third: How our educational structures

populate an educational underclass. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 15, 27–50. doi:10.1080/10824661003634948

Ewing, B. T., Levernier, W., & Malik, F. (2005). Modeling unemployment rates by race and gender: A nonlinear time series approach. Eastern Economic Journal, 31, 333–347.

Fish, L. S., & Busby, D. M. (1996). The Delphi method. In D. H. Sprenkle & S. M. Moon (Eds.), Research methods in family therapy (pp. 469–482). New York, NY: Guilford.

Fouad, N. A. (2006). Social justice in career and vocational aspects of counseling psychology: An overview. In R. L. Toporek, L. H. Gerstein, N. A. Fouad, G. Royiscar, & T. Israel (Eds.) Handbook for social justice in counseling psychology: Leadership, vision, and action (pp. 251–255). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Fouad, N. A., Kantamneni, N., Smothers, M. K., Chen, Y.-L., Fitzpatrick, M. K., & Terry, S. (2008). Asian American career development: A qualitative analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 72, 43–59. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2007.10.002

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Herder & Herder.

Gottfredson, L. S. (2005). Applying Gottfredson’s theory of circumscription and compromise in career guidance and

counseling. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and  

            research to work (pp. 71–100). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Greene, J. P., & Winters, M. A. (2005, February). Public high school graduation and college-readiness rates: 1991–2002. Retrieved from http://www.manhattan-institute.org/pdf/ewp_08.pdf

Guiffrida, D. A., & Douthit, K. Z. (2010). The Black student experience at predominantly White

colleges: Implications for school and college counselors. Journal of Counseling & Development, 88, 311–318. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2010.tb00027.x

Gysbers, N. C., Heppner, M. J., & Johnston, J.A. (2003). Career counseling: Process, issues, and techniques (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Hackett, G., & Betz, N. E. (1981). A self-efficacy approach to the career development of women. Journal of Vocational                   Behavior, 18, 326–339. doi:10.1016/0001-8791(81)90019-1

Hansen, S. (2000). Preparing counselors for career development in the new millennium: ACES/NCDA position paper. Retrieved from http://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/asset_manager/get_file/3405

Hansen, S. S. (2003). Career counselors as advocates and change agents for equality. The Career Development Quarterly, 52, 43–53. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2003.tb00626.x

Hartung, P. J., & Blustein, D. L. (2002). Reason, intuition, and social justice: Elaborating on Parson’s career decision-making model. Journal of Counseling & Development, 80, 41–47. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2002.tb00164.x

Jacobe, D. (2012, March 8). U.S. unemployment up in February. Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/153161/unemployment-february.aspx

Juntunen, C. L., Barraclough, D. J., Broneck, C. M., Seibel, G. A, Winrow, S. A., & Morin, P. M. (2001). American Indian perspectives on the career journey. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 48, 274–285. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.48.3.274

Kidd, S. A., & Kral, M. J. (2005). Practicing participatory action research. Journal of Counseling

Psychology, 52, 187–195. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.52.2.187

Lapour, A. S., & Heppner, M. J. (2009). Social class privilege and adolescent women’s perceived career options. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 56, 477–494. doi:10.1037/a0017268

Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45, 79–122. doi:10.1006/jvbe.1994.1027

Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (2000). Contextual supports and barriers to career choice: A social cognitive analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47, 36–49. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.47.1.36

Levine, M. V. (2012). Race and male employment in the wake of the great recession: Black male employment rates in Milwaukee and the nation’s largest metro areas 2010. Retrieved from http://www4.uwm.edu/ced/publications/black-employment_2012.pdf

Lewis, J. A., Arnold, M. S., House, R., & Toporek, R. L. (2002). Advocacy Competencies. Retrieved from http://www.counseling.org/resources/competencies/advocacy_competencies.pdf

Linstone, H. A., & Turoff, M. (1975). Introduction. In H. A. Linstone, & M. Turoff (Eds.), The Delphi method: Techniques and applications (pp. 3–12). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Martín-Baró, I. (1991). Developing a critical consciousness through the university curriculum. In J. Hassett & H. Lacey (Eds.), Towards a society that serves its people: The intellectual contribution of El Salvador’s murdered Jesuits (pp. 220–242) .Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Martín-Baró, I. (1994). Writings for a liberation psychology. A. Aron & S. Corne (Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Metz, A. J., & Guichard, J. (2009). Vocational psychology and new challenges. The Career Development Quarterly, 57, 310–318. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2009.tb00116.x

National Career Development Association. (2009a). Career counseling competencies. Retrieved from http://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/37798/_self/layout_details/false

National Career Development Association. (2009b). Minimum competencies for multicultural career counseling and development. Retrieved from http://ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/fli/12508/false

Paul, K. I., & Moser, K. (2009). Unemployment impairs mental health: Meta-analyses. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 74, 264–282. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2009.01.001

Pope, M. (2003). Career counseling in the twenty-first century: Beyond cultural encapsulation. The Career Development Quarterly, 52, 54–60. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2003.tb00627.x

Rothstein, J. (2012). The labor market four years into the crisis: Assessing structural explanations. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 65, 467–500.

Sandelowski, M. (2000). Whatever happened to qualitative description? Research in Nursing & Health, 23, 334–340. doi:10.1002/1098-240X(200008)23:4<334::AID-NUR9>3.0.CO;2-G

Sandelowski, M. (2010). What’s in a name? Qualitative description revisited. Research in Nursing & Health, 33, 77–84.

doi:10.1002/nur.20362.

Savage, T. A., Harley, D. A., & Nowak, T. M. (2005). Applying social empowerment strategies as tools for self-advocacy in counseling lesbian and gay male clients. Journal of Counseling and Development, 83, 131–137. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2005.tb00589.x

Schmidt, C. K., & Nilsson, J. E. (2006). The effects of simultaneous developmental processes: Factors relating to the career development of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth. The Career Development Quarterly, 55, 22–37. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2006.tb00002.x

Skulmoski, G. J., Hartman, F. T., & Krahn, J. (2007). The Delphi method for graduate research. Journal of Information Technology Education, 6, 1–21.

Stebleton, M. J., & Eggerth, D. E. (2012). Returning to our roots: Immigrant populations at work. Journal of Career            

            Development, 39, 3–12. doi:10.1177/0894845311417131

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Stuart, H. (2006). Mental illness and employment discrimination. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 19, 522–526. doi:10.1097/01.yco.0000238482.27270.5d

Trainor, A. A., Lindstrom, L., Simon-Burroughs, M., Martin, J. E., & Sorrells, A. M. (2008). From marginalized to maximized opportunities for diverse youths with disabilities: A position paper of the Division on Career Development and Transition. Career Development for Exceptional Individuals, 31, 56–64. doi:10.1177/0885728807313777

U.S. Census Bureau. (2006). Current population survey. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/cps

U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). Current population survey. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/cps

U.S. Census Bureau. (2013). Current population survey. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/cps

Vázquez-Ramos, R., Leahy, M., & Hernández, N. E. (2007). The Delphi method in rehabilitation counseling research. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 111–118. doi:10.1177/00343552070500020101

Vera, E. M., & Speight, S. L. (2003). Multicultural competence, social justice, and counseling psychology: Expanding our roles. The Counseling Psychologist, 31, 253–272. doi:10.1177/0011000003031003001

Werth, J. L., Jr., Borges, N. J., McNally, C. J., Maguire, C. P., & Britton, P. J. (2008). Integrating health and vocational psychology: HIV and employment. The Counseling Psychologist, 36, 8–15. doi:10.1177/0011000007309636

West-Olatunji, C., Shure, L., Pringle, R., Adams, T., Lewis, D., & Cholewa, B. (2010). Exploring how school counselors position low-income African American girls as mathematics and science learners. Professional School Counseling, 13, 184–195.

Yakushko, O., Watson, M., & Thompson, S. (2008). Stress and coping in the lives of recent immigrants and refugees:

Considerations for counseling. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 30, 167–178.

doi:10.1007/s10447-008-9054-0

Appendix

Career Development Challenges Faced by Marginalized Populations

Theme: Systemic—General

Generalized challenges

• Systematic discrimination and stereotyping occur in terms of issues such as (but not limited to) education, training, hiring, promotion and compensation, some of which are more pronounced in certain career fields and/or geographic areas.
• Marginalized populations experience lack of, and barriers to, support and access for completing educational goals, obtaining quality healthcare and achieving career goals.
• Economic challenges, including meeting one’s basic needs, are exacerbated by systemic discrimination and the growing gap between haves and have-nots.

Challenges specific to the economic crisis

• Traditionally marginalized populations tend to be employed in situations with poor job security, pay and benefits; be at higher risk for layoffs; and have insufficient supports to deal effectively with losing work.
• Amplified discriminatory hiring, promotion and compensation practices may occur due to scarce resources and increased competitiveness in the job market.
• Public funding and policy do not effectively address the career development problems that traditionally marginalized populations are facing in this current economic climate.
• Overall, the economic crisis has further limited access to education and employment for traditionally marginalized populations, increased the gap between the haves and have-nots, and increased the number of people experiencing economic hardship.

Theme: Systemic—Population-Specific

Generalized challenges

• Women face sexism and workplace patriarchy in regard to pay, promotion, family decisions, relational approaches to working and challenges related to other intersecting identities (e.g., race, sexual orientation).
• LGBTQ populations experience geographic discrimination, consider when to “come out” and navigate hostile work environments.
• Latina/o adolescents and young adults experience educational inequity, barriers to accessing higher education (particularly for undocumented individuals) and fewer career development opportunities in general.
• Immigrant refugees face language proficiency challenges, lack of professional networks and inadequate career development support.
• Low-income, first-generation college students lack access to financial resources, professional networks, mentors and an understanding of available career development resources; additionally, these students may receive poor financial aid counseling and subsequently enter into unnecessary debt.
• International students often face foreign cultural norms, pressure from family and potential employers’ insufficient knowledge about their employability.
• Individuals with disabilities, particularly hidden disabilities such as mental illness, may encounter problems related to discrimination, disclosing their conditions and articulating strengths.
• Individuals from a low-socioeconomic status background may face significant challenges including a lack of housing, childcare, financial security and adequate educational preparation.
• College students of nontraditional ages face discrimination, particularly when there are gaps in employment or significant career field changes involved.

     Challenges specific to the economic crisis

• Immigrants face increased difficulties in finding work, particularly in places where immigrant employment legislation has been reenforced or newly created during the economic crisis.
• Due to increased competitiveness, there is increased discrimination for people of color, older workers, those with nontraditional sexual identities, and those with disabilities.
• Unemployment rates in the current crisis are significantly higher for African Americans and Latinos in comparison to Whites.

Theme: Systemic Impact on the Individual

Generalized challenges

• Facing significant career development barriers may lead to despair and lowered expectations for the future.
• Conflicts between an individual’s culture of origin and work culture may lead to internal conflicts, including feelings of selling out.
• Being marginalized results in negative thinking, which becomes embedded in one’s self-concept and decision-making processes.

Challenges specific to the economic crisis

• Scarcity of opportunity fosters negative mindsets and beliefs among and about these populations (e.g., hatred, blame, resentment, distrust) and makes the process of finding work more difficult.

Theme: Individual—General

Generalized challenges

• Lowered self-esteem, self-efficacy and outcome expectations in traditionally marginalized populations can create significant problems for career development.
• These populations tend to have reduced knowledge and perception of possible career/occupational pathways.

Challenges specific to the economic crisis

• Marginalized populations are more afraid to change jobs or transition their careers in this economic climate.
• Feelings of disempowerment and loss of identity in an increasingly impersonal climate, as well as a lack of creativity in conceptualizing possible career options, have a negative effect on individuals’ ability to pursue, secure and maintain work.

Theme: Individual—Population-Specific

     Generalized challenges

• Individuals with disabilities may have lower self-efficacy, be overly dependent on others, have unrealistic expectations and be wary of disclosing disability despite possible benefits.
• Immigrant refugees may have different notions of time and professionalism, lack important skill sets, maintain career goals that are incompatible with the U.S. job market and be more likely to take lengthy trips back to their home country that interfere with job success.
• Individuals over 30 may lack adequate understanding of technological career development resources.

     Challenges specific to the economic crisis

N/A

Kevin A. Tate, NCC, is an Assistant Professor at Marquette University. Kathleen M. Fallon, NCC, is an Assistant Professor at the College at Brockport, SUNY. Elaine J. Casquarelli, NCC, is a doctoral student at the University of Rochester. Laura Reid Marks is a doctoral student at Purdue University. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the National Career Development Association Leadership Academy Program for this study. Correspondence can be addressed to Kevin A. Tate, P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI 53110, kevin.a.tate@gmail.com.

Global Links and Gaps in Counselor Education Programs: Establishing a Baseline

Oct 2, 2014 | Article, Volume 4 - Issue 4

Laura Shannonhouse, Jane E. Myers

As the world grows more connected, the counseling profession has developed a significant focus on multicultural concerns and internationalization (the incorporation of international perspectives), but the extent of this phenomenon is currently unknown. The current pilot study established baseline data concerning how counselor education programs encouraged and supported international opportunities for students and faculty. Representatives from 62 of the 215 (as of spring 2011) programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs completed a survey describing their institutions’ and departments’ commitment to incorporating student and faculty international activities into their counselor preparation programs, and the nature of such activities in faculty involvement and counselor training. Two primary themes emerged from the data: (1) a disconnect between commitment to and execution of international activities, and (2) a one-sided approach to internationalization and cultural exchanges. Implications for research and counselor preparation are considered.

Keywords: internationalization, counselor preparation, cultural exchanges, baseline data, international activities

Heppner, Leong, and Chiao (2008), writing from the perspective of counseling psychology, observed that increased global dialogue and the incorporation of international perspectives has resulted in a shift toward viewing the counseling profession as part of a larger global movement. In the introduction to a special issue of the Journal of Counseling & Development focused on counseling around the world, Hohenshil (2010) asserted that the growth of this movement is “one of the major and most exciting emerging trends in the counseling profession” (p. 3). The importance of this trend was underscored by Leung et al. (2009), who provided an extensive rationale for and discussion of internationalization in counseling. However, Leung et al. (2009), along with other authors, notably Pedersen (2003), Leong and Ponterotto (2003), and Heppner (2006), noted that internationalization is still a fresh concept and that understanding and implementing it is a work in progress.

Ng and Noonan (2012) asserted that internationalization is “a multidimensional movement in which professionals across nations collaborate through equal partnerships to advance the practice of counseling as a worldwide profession” (p.11). These collaborations will likely include many who identify as professional counselors, but must be inclusive so as to encourage contributions from those of other identities and traditions who promote mental health, wellness and development from different, though compatible, perspectives. In order to foster such collaborations, Leung et al. (2009) have advocated for “the nurturance of a global perspective in counseling scholarship, through our teaching, research, and service” (p. 112). Numerous authors have promoted such a perspective through articles that focus on the nature of counseling in various countries (e.g., Remley, Bacchini, & Krieg, 2010; See & Ng, 2010; Stockton, Nitza, & Bhusumane, 2010), those that explore counseling-oriented topics across borders (e.g., Chung, 2005; Furbish, 2007) and several that describe the challenges that international students face in Euro-American counseling training and supervision (e.g., Crockett & Hays, 2011; Yakunina, Weigold, & McCarthy, 2010).

The global aspects of counseling, teaching and service also are central to research that explains and analyzes the involvement of extended cultural immersion experiences in counselor education programs (e.g., Alexander, Kruzek, & Ponterotto, 2005; Canfield, Low, & Hovestadt, 2009; Ishii, Gilbride, & Stensrud, 2009; Shannonhouse & West-Olatunji, 2013; Tomlinson-Clarke & Clarke, 2010). Throughout this cultural immersion literature, a primary emphasis is the use of cultural exchanges as an avenue toward increasing multicultural counseling competence. If it is true that international experiences promote multicultural counseling competence, as suggested by Alexander et al. (2005), Shannonhouse and West-Olatunji (2013) and Tomlinson-Clarke and Clarke (2010), inclusion of such experiences as part of counselor training seems important. Though Shannonhouse (2013) provided a current review of the literature regarding the relationship of cultural immersion to multicultural counseling competence, a solid understanding of the extent of international cultural immersion across programs is not currently available. Although several authors have described the nature and measure of international involvement among counseling psychology faculty and students (see Gerstein, Heppner, Ægisdóttir, Leung & Norsworthy, 2009), the literature lacks information concerning the involvement of counselor educators and counselor education programs with the international counseling community.

The present pilot study was undertaken to obtain baseline data on the amount of counselor preparation program involvement beyond U.S. borders. The authors’ intent was to determine the extent to which counselor education programs incorporate (and are committed to) international and cultural immersion activities as part of faculty involvement and counselor training. The authors proposed the following research questions: How many counselor education programs have a departmental commitment to international activities? To what extent do faculty and students participate in international activities? What kinds of activities are included?

Method

Through a multi-step revision process, the authors drafted a survey to examine the nature of international activities in faculty involvement and counselor training. First, two counselor educators not involved with the study who had expertise in international activities reviewed an outline of the study design, research questions and draft survey questions. The authors then revised the survey per the feedback they received, and subsequently field-tested it with one counselor educator and two doctoral students with prior counseling experience outside the United States. Based upon their feedback, the draft survey underwent wording, content and structural changes, which resulted in the final instrument used in this study. The authors presented the final version of the survey to an Institutional Review Board and it received approval for use as intended.

Eight quantitative survey items assessed demographic characteristics of each respondent (e.g., gender, ethnicity) and his or her counselor education program (e.g., Association for Counselor Education and Supervision [ACES] region, program tracks). Twenty additional questions assessed the nature of international experiences for both faculty (Table 2) and students (Table 3), and the extent of program and institutional support (incorporated throughout Tables 2 and 3). Participants provided comments in relation to several questions to expand upon their initial responses.

The authors sent a link to the online Qualtrics survey along with information about the study via e-mail to the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) coordinators of all (as of spring 2011) 215 CACREP-accredited programs. The e-mail included a request to forward the link to another faculty member if the coordinator thought that person would be better suited to complete the survey. It is unknown how many program coordinators or other faculty completed the survey; however, 66 counselor educators initiated responses, with 62 completing the full survey. While the initial response rate was 31%, the survey completion rate was 29%. The number of responses to individual items varied from 59–62. The sample size was insufficient to make valid within- and between-groups comparisons.

Participants and Program Information

The counselor educators who completed the survey included 24 males (41%) and 35 females (59%). Most were Caucasian (n = 55, 90%). Two were African American (3%), one each identified as Asian American or Latino (2%), and two indicated “other.” The authors asked participants how many study-abroad, immersion or international travel experiences they had taken part in as either a participant or facilitator. Equal numbers of respondents reported either none or more than four (n = 13, 21% in each group), and one participant noted having more than 25 such experiences. Slightly fewer respondents reported one international experience (n = 11, 18%), and six (10%) reported two such experiences.

Program-level information that the respondents provided is included in Table 1. As one can see from this table, more than one-third of the respondents were from the Southern Region (37.7%), slightly more than one-quarter were from the North Central Region (27.9%), and substantially fewer were from the North Atlantic, Rocky Mountain or Western Regions. This distribution of respondents approximates the ACES regional membership, which includes regional percentages of 41.3% Southern, 26.4% North Central, 17.3% North Atlantic, 8.7% Western and 6.3% Rocky Mountain. All the programs that the respondents represented offered a master’s degree and 34% offered a doctoral degree. Accredited program tracks varied, with most programs offering clinical mental health or community counseling tracks (90.3%) and school counseling tracks (74.1%). Though there was no place for respondents to indicate the student enrollment of their programs, the average full-time equivalent (FTE) faculty size was 7.2 persons, with only 12% of programs having 12 or more faculty.

Table 1

Program-Level Information on Respondents

Results

Responses to the core survey items offered insight into the specific nature of international activities in counselor preparation programs and how much support and structure the programs devoted to these activities. The authors examined these activities separately for both counselor educators and counselor trainees, with a majority of the responses summarized for each individual question in Table 2 (faculty activities) and Table 3 (student activities). For each of these two populations, the results characterized the nature and type of the international activities, how they were incorporated into expected practices, how they were financially supported, and what role international partners had in those activities.

Faculty Involvement in International Activities

The authors asked several questions to determine the level and type of program support for international activities of faculty. Responses are summarized in Table 2. Among the counselor education programs that the respondents represented, most (87.1%) did not incorporate international activities as a regular and expected endeavor for faculty. However, in most programs (82.2%), the institutional mission statement or philosophy supported or advocated for such involvement. The authors consistently found that a structured international component was lacking in over three-fourths of programs (77.4%).

Table 2

Program Support for and Faculty Involvement in International Activities

Most respondents (83.9%) reported that faculty had participated in international activities within the past 3 years. International activities of faculty included attendance and presentations at conferences outside the United States (56.5% each), joint research with faculty outside the United States (37.1%), and study-abroad tours (30.1%). Relatively few respondents reported international faculty exchange (9.7%) and Fulbright Scholars (12.9%).

Financial support for faculty international activities was reported to come from the faculty member or university in almost equal proportions, with a lower level of financial support from departments and extremely little from professional associations. The authors asked respondents to report relative percentage contributions from each of those four sources. As shown in Table 2, the standard deviations of responses to all four categories were relatively large, in all cases exceeding the absolute value of the mean. In short, there was a significant amount of variability in response to the question concerning sources of financial support for international activities of faculty.

Not shown in Table 2 are responses concerning departmental support for international programs, as most counselor educators who completed the survey did not respond to this question. Among the 14 who did respond, 13 (93% of those responding) indicated that there was departmental support for international activities, through either curricular focus or financial commitments. Over one-quarter of respondents (27.4%) reported that their program had a partner school outside the United States, and nearly all (88.2%) of those respondents reported that faculty regularly visited the partner school. Roughly one-half (52.9%) of respondents from programs with such international partnerships noted that they had reciprocal faculty exchanges with their partners.

Student Involvement in International Activities

Survey responses to questions concerning student involvement in international activities are summarized in Table 3. Slightly over one-fourth of the programs that respondents represented (29%) incorporated international activities as part of counselor training. Responses were split 50/50 on the question of whether students were actively encouraged to be involved in international activities outside the counselor education program. Respondents from only two programs (3.2%) noted that participation in international activities was required for graduation. Almost one-quarter of respondents represented programs (24.1%) that provided academic credit to students for participating in international activities. When programs did offer academic credit, it was more often for an elective course than a required one, though five respondents (8.1%) did note that their programs required the international course.

Table 3

Program Support for Student Involvement in International Activities

Financial support for student participation in international activities was apparently limited. Again, participants responded to this question based on the percentage of funding provided by each of the four sources. Three-quarters of funding came directly from students themselves. Departments provided some support (M = 14.12, SD = 25.07), with some coming from the universities (M = 11.35, SD = 18.13), while support from professional associations was almost nonexistent (M = 1.12, SD = 3.16). As was true of faculty financial support, there was significant variability in responses to this question except in regard to support provided by professional associations.

Not shown in Table 3 are responses from the 17 respondents who reported their programs having partner schools. Among those respondents, 53% reported that students regularly visited the partner programs. Only 35% engaged in reciprocal student exchange with partner schools.

Discussion

     Despite the respondents’ reports of strong departmental and institutional commitments to internationalization from CACREP-accredited counselor education programs, the responses of 62 faculty members suggest that these programs have a relatively low level of actual involvement in international activities. However, over the past 3 years a significant number of individual faculty members have participated in international activities of their own accord. Attending and presenting at international conferences have been the primary faculty activities, with few engaging in faculty exchange or Fulbright scholarships. This finding contrasts with reports from counseling psychologists, for whom Fulbrights and faculty exchanges have been more frequent (Heppner et al., 2008).

Funding for international involvement differs considerably for faculty and students. Although faculty contribute more than one-third of the costs for their international involvement, they are much more likely than students to obtain support from their department and university. Professional associations are also slightly more likely to provide financial support for faculty than for students. If students are to engage in international activities, some consideration of financial support seems imperative.

Among programs that have partner schools, faculty and to a lesser extent students regularly visit their partners. However, faculty and student exchanges from international partners to American CACREP programs are not nearly as prevalent. From the current findings, it appears that internationalization occurs primarily in one direction, which validates several conclusions from Gerstein and Ægisdóttir’s (2007) comprehensive review of the literature. The reasons for such a one-sided approach to internationalization are likely complex, and at this stage are still unknown. It could be that U.S. counselor education programs either do not encourage or may actually discourage international visitors or enrollment of international students. If that is the case, determining and addressing underlying reasons, such as language or logistical barriers, is an important next step. If other factors are involved, learning what those are could be a step toward reducing barriers and increasing more equal international exchanges.

Though structured (and reciprocal) international activities are not the norm across programs represented in this survey, two stand out as particularly interesting examples with regard to the effects of internationalization on counselor trainee development and on the logistical realities of implementing two-way internationalization. While at the University of Florida, Dr. Cirecie A. West-Olatunji organized two month-long immersions to South Africa and Botswana (see Shannonhouse & West-Olatunji, 2009, for a program summary). These events were optional for participating students, who received no course credit and some financial support for participation. However, they were effective at enhancing multicultural awareness (Shannonhouse & West-Olatunji, 2013; West-Olatunji, Templeton, Goodman, & Mehta, 2011), and were structured in such a way as to validate and allow the students to learn from the natural helpers and para-professionals in southern Africa. Meanwhile, Dr. Suhyun Suh at Auburn University has developed an ongoing reciprocal international exchange between Auburn and Korean counseling students (for more information, see http://education.auburn.edu/academic_departments/serc/outreach/south-korea.html). This activity is provided at reduced cost to students by leveraging university funds (Auburn students pay the equivalent of 5 credit hours for 3 hours of credit plus a week of immersion), and it involves exchanging students and faculty from both institutions for coursework in addition to cultural immersion (Suh, Hansing, Booker, & Radomski, 2013).

While the results of this study were designed to serve as a baseline of internationalization in counselor education and not a compendium of current activities, the authors choose to showcase the initiatives of these two programs in order to facilitate dialogue. The first provides a peer-reviewed look at the benefits of internationalization and serves as a reminder of why the counseling profession has joined other disciplines in welcoming globalization: much can be learned from those who help in different places and different ways. The second serves as a model for how a counseling program can implement a reciprocal exchange that is structured into the curriculum and financially supported by funding sources invested in diversity. Both programs are built upon the premise that internationalization is multidirectional, in that all those working toward wellness across the globe have valuable perspectives from which others may learn, in an effort to better advance human dignity.

Implications

The current findings raise a number of questions concerning student and faculty participation in international counseling activities. For example, what are the reasons underlying faculty choices for international involvement? What inhibits involvement? Are language barriers or a lack of contacts, resources or finances the strongest deterrents? Though financial realities may prevent many international faculty and students from visiting U.S. counseling programs and thereby encourage one-way internationalization, is the exchange between U.S. counseling programs and their counterparts in wealthier nations also one-sided? How can reciprocal international cooperation and involvement increase? Larger systemic issues such as political pressures or economic strain may have an important effect on some of these unanswered questions, and future researchers should consider them.

Limitations

Whether the respondents adequately represented all accredited programs is impossible to determine. It is likely that some CACREP liaisons were faculty with international experiences while others were not. Though the authors asked that those in the latter group forward the survey link to a faculty member with more relevant experience, the number of participants who did so is unknown. In each case, the respondent provided program-level information rather than reporting as an individual. It is probable that even in the programs for which respondents reported high levels of international involvement, the respondents simply may not have known about some relevant faculty activities. It is also likely that respondents representing programs with international involvement were among those most inclined to respond to the survey. Overall, the results were limited by the response rate and respondents’ knowledge of program faculty activities. While one must interpret the results with caution due to these limitations, these findings did provide the beginnings of a baseline to determine counselor education program involvement in international activities, which offers an important first step for future systematic efforts (e.g., Shannonhouse, 2013) to contextualize the internationalization of the counseling profession.

Conclusion

As the counseling profession continues to internationalize, it will be necessary for counselor education programs to provide training for both students and faculty to increase cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity. Institutional support will be essential in terms of both mission and financial resources for both students and faculty. Beyond the institution, faculty may require training and encouragement to undertake international activities beyond conference attendance. While international presentations and partner school visits are impressive for faculty vitae and university reports, true internationalization is a two-way process. The authors challenge counselor educators to find ways to extend a welcome to international visitors, which will result in increasing numbers of faculty and student exchanges, and equalize the balance of trade relative to the internationalization of the counseling profession.

References

Alexander, C. M., Kruzek, T., & Ponterotto, J. G. (2005). Building multicultural competencies in school counselor trainees: An international immersion experience. Counselor Education and Supervision, 44, 255–266. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6978.2005.tb01754.x

Canfield, B. S., Low, L., & Hovestadt, A. (2009). Cultural immersion as a learning method for expanding intercultural competencies. The Family Journal, 17, 318–322. doi:10.1177/1066480709347359

Chung, R. C. Y. (2005). Women, human rights, and counseling: Crossing international boundaries. Journal of Counseling & Development, 83, 262–268. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2005.tb00341.x

Crockett, S. A., & Hays, D. G. (2011). Understanding and responding to the career counseling needs of international college students on U.S. campuses. Journal of College Counseling, 14, 65–79. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1882.2011.tb00064.x

Furbish, D. S. (2007). Career counseling in New Zealand. Journal of Counseling & Development, 85, 115–119. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2007.tb00453.x

Gerstein, L. H., & Ægisdóttir, S. (2007). Training international social change agents: Transcending a U.S. counseling paradigm. Counselor Education and Supervision, 47, 123–139. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6978.2007.tb00043.x

Gerstein, L. H., Heppner, P. P., Ægisdóttir, S., Leung, S.-M. A., & Norsworthy, K. L. (Eds.). (2009). International handbook of cross-cultural counseling: Cultural assumptions and practices worldwide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Heppner, P. P. (2006). The benefits and challenges of becoming cross-culturally competent counseling psychologists. The Counseling Psychologist, 34, 147–172. doi:10.1177/0011000005282832

Heppner, P. P., Leong, F. T. L., & Chiao, H. (2008). A growing internationalization of counseling psychology. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Handbook of counseling psychology (4th ed., pp. 68–85). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.

Hohenshil, T. H. (2010). International counseling introduction. Journal of Counseling & Development, 88, 3. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2010.tb00140.x

Ishii, H., Gilbride, D. D., & Stensrud, R. (2009). Students’ internal reactions to a one-week cultural immersion trip: A qualitative analysis of student journals. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 37, 15–27. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1912.2009.tb00088.x

Leung, S.-M. A., Clawson, T., Norsworthy, K. L., Tena, A., Szilagyi, A., & Rogers, J. (2009). Internationalization of the counseling profession: An indigenous perspective. In L. H. Gerstein, P. P. Heppner, S.-M. A. Leung, & K. L. Norsworthy (Eds.), International handbook of cross-cultural counseling (pp. 111–124). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Leong, F. T. L., & Ponterotto, J. G. (2003). A proposal for internationalizing counseling psychology in the United States: Rationale, recommendations, and challenges. The Counseling Psychologist, 31, 381–395. doi:10.1177/0011000003031004001

Ng, K.-M., & Noonan, B. M. (2012). Internationalization of the counseling profession: Meaning, scope, and concerns. International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling, 34, 5–18. doi:10.1007/s10447-011-9144-2

Pedersen, P. B. (2003). Culturally biased assumptions in counseling psychology. The Counseling Psychologist, 31, 396–403. doi:10.1177/0011000003031004002

Remley, T. P., Jr., Bacchini, E., & Krieg, P. (2010). Counseling in Italy. Journal of Counseling & Development, 88, 28–32. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2010.tb00146.x

See, C. M. & Ng, K.-M. (2010). Counseling in Malaysia: History, current status, and future trends. Journal of Counseling & Development, 88, 18–22. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2010.tb00144.x

Shannonhouse, L. (2013). The relationships between multicultural counseling competence, cultural immersion, & cognitive/emotional developmental styles: Implications for multicultural counseling training (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/listing.aspx?styp=ti&id=10151

Shannonhouse, L. R., & West-Olatunji, C. A. (2009, December). AMCD, ACES outreach tour a success. Counseling Today, 52(6), 100–101.

Shannonhouse, L., & West-Olatunji, C. (2013, Winter). One counselor-trainee’s journey toward multicultural counseling competence: The role of mentoring in executing intentional cultural immersion Professional Issues in Counseling. Retrieved from http://www.shsu.edu/~piic/documents/OneCounselorTrainee%E2%80%99sJourneyTowardMulticulturalCounselingCompetence.pdf

Suh, S., Hansing, K., Booker, S., & Radomski, J. (2013, October). Experiential learning abroad: Process and outcomes. Poster session presented at the meeting of the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, Denver, CO.

Stockton, R., Nitza, A., & Bhusumane, D.-B. (2010). The development of professional counseling in Botswana. Journal of Counseling & Development, 88, 9–12. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2010.tb00142.x

Tomlinson-Clarke, S. M., & Clarke, D. (2010). Culturally focused community-centered service learning: An international cultural immersion experience. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 38, 166–175. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1912.2010.tb00124.x

West-Olatunji, C., Templeton, L., Goodman, R. D., & Mehta, S. (2011). Creating cultural competence: An outreach immersion experience in southern Africa. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 33, 335–346. doi:10.1007/s10447-011-9138-0

Yakunina, E. S., Weigold, I. K., & McCarthy, A. S. (2010). Group counseling with international students: Practical, ethical, and cultural considerations. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 25, 67–78. doi:10.1080/87568225.2011.532672

Laura Shannonhouse, NCC, is an assistant professor at the University of Maine. Jane E. Myers, NCC, NCGC, is a professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Correspondence can be addressed to Laura Shannonhouse, 5766 Shibles Hall, Orono, ME 04469, laura.shannonhouse@maine.edu.

Profiling the Personality Traits of University Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students at a Research University in Malaysia

Oct 2, 2014 | Article, Volume 4 - Issue 4

See Ching Mey, Melissa Ng Lee Yen Abdullah, Chuah Joe Yin

Research universities in Malaysia are striving to transform into world-class institutions. These universities have the capacity to attract the best students to achieve excellence in education and research. It is important to monitor the psychological well-being of students during the transformation process so that proactive intervention can help students cope with the learning and research demands. This study profiled and monitored the personality traits of postgraduate and undergraduate students in a selected Malaysian research university using a quantitative research method. The researchers profiled personality traits using an online assessment, the Behavioral Management Information System (BeMIS), and tracked real and preferred personality traits and positive changes during rapid institutional transition.

Keywords: personality traits, BeMIS, undergraduate students, research universities, psychological well-being

Malaysia is advancing toward a knowledge-based economy and relies heavily on its universities to educate and train the much-needed human capital for the country (Fernandez, 2010). Research universities have the capacity to attract the best students and have the autonomy to select students who excel in education and research. Various measures are being implemented to transform universities into world-class institutions (Wan, 2008). The institutional transformation at Malaysian universities focuses on critical areas such as governance, leadership, academia, teaching and learning, as well as research and development (Ministry of Higher Education, 2011). Educational institutions must monitor the psychological profile and well-being of their students, especially those who are potentially at risk of mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, as well as substance abuse, in order to promote optimum human capital development (Wynaden, Wichmann, & Murray, 2013). Moreover, during the institutional transformation process, all levels of the university community, including students, may experience changes driven by higher standards and demands in teaching and learning as well as research performance (Schraeder, Swamidass, & Morrison, 2006) that might result in stress (Becker et al., 2004; Gladstone & Reynolds, 1997; Smollan & Sayers, 2009). Certain personality traits may build the community’s resilience in coping with psychological stress (Lievens, Ones, & Dilchert, 2009; Nelson, Cooper, & Jackson, 1995). A detailed personality profile of university students can help research institutions put in place necessary support systems to strengthen students’ well-being during institutional transformation.

The Impact of Institutional Transformation

Institutional transformation at research universities in Malaysia can result in stress, anxiety and uncertainty for students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Successful coping with new demands is integral to the process of transformation. Failure to cope with stressors may lead to fatigue and depressive mood. Such physical and psychological symptoms may impair daily living, work and school performance, and learning ability (Goretti, Portaccio, Zipoli, Razzolini, & Amato, 2010; See, Abdullah, Teoh, & Yaacob, 2011). Organizational change may affect personality changes in students and impact academic performance (Horng, Hu, Hong, & Lin, 2011; Nelson et al., 1995; Oreg & Sverdlik, 2011; See et al., 2011). Ongoing research including profiling and monitoring the personality traits and psychosocial behavior of students can assist students in adapting successfully (Marshall, 2010). Counselors and psychologists at the university can help students develop positive coping strategies during stressful transitional periods.

Personality Characteristics

Connor-Smith and Flachsbart (2007) have defined personality as characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors over time and across situations. Some theorists have described coping as a process of the personality responding to stress (Connor-Smith & Flachsbart, 2007). For example, individuals with the personality trait of extraversion may seek social support during life crisis, while someone with the trait of neuroticism may respond with avoidance or denial. Thus, personality traits may influence university students’ responses and coping skills in stressful situations. Individuals with an extraverted personality tend toward optimistic assessment of accessible coping resources and react less intensely to stress, while those with a neurotic personality often experience high rates of stress and intense emotional and physiological reactivity to stress (Connor-Smith & Flachsbart, 2007). Personality predispositions can predict an individual’s ability to adapt to change. Resilient traits enable stress management in reaction to institutional transformation (Nelson et al., 1995; Oreg, Vakola, & Armenakis, 2011; See et al., 2011). The goal of this study was to analyze the personality profile of undergraduate and postgraduate students at a research university in Malaysia during institutional transformation, and to propose proactive interventions to help the student community cope with change.

Overview of the Study

The selected research university in this study was awarded the status of Accelerated Program for Excellence (APEX) in 2008, making it the first and only APEX university in Malaysia. APEX is a fast-track development program that aims to enable a selected university to transform and seek world-class status (Razak, 2009). The APEX program has been identified as a critical initiative to increase the level of excellence of higher education in Malaysia (Razak, 2009). An APEX university has the autonomy to select students based on academic merit and other criteria that the university deems essential. For this study, the researchers randomly selected from among postgraduate and undergraduate students who had volunteered to participate, and used the Behavioral Management Information System (BeMIS) to investigate the students’ personality profile and well-being. The research objectives included the following: (a) profile the real and preferred personality traits of the university students during institutional transformation, and (b) explore personality changes over different phases during the university’s transitional period.

Participants and Design

This longitudinal study gathered data relating to personality traits and psychosocial behaviors of postgraduate and undergraduate students over three phases. Seventy-eight students (34 undergraduate students and 44 postgraduate students) participated in phase 1; 142 students (80 undergraduate students and 62 postgraduate students) participated in phase 2; and 169 students (72 undergraduate students and 97 postgraduate students) participated in phase 3.

Instrument

The BeMIS is an online assessment and reporting tool used to measure personality. The BeMIS was developed using the Adjective Check List (ACL), a standardized personality trait measure comprised of 300 adjectives commonly used to describe personality traits (Gough & Heilbrun, 1983). The ACL is capable of effectively measuring 37 personality traits under five main categories of traits: (a) responsiveness, (b) psychological needs, (c) specific responses, (d) interpersonal behavior and (e) cognitive orientation (Gough & Heilbrun, n.d.; Center for Credentialing and Education, 2009). The 37 personality traits are enthusiasm, optimism, negativity, communality, achievement, dominance, endurance, order, exhibition, psychologically perceptive, nurturance, affiliation, social energy, autonomy, aggression, change, support seeking, self-blaming, deference, counseling readiness, self-control, self-confidence, personal adjustment, self-satisfaction, creativity, structure valuing, masculinity, femininity, fault finding, respectful, work centered, playful, security seeking, affected, intellectualistic, pragmatic and scientific. The behavior for each scale is presented in percentile ranks, and grouped into real and preferred personality traits. The real-self personality traits are the existing traits, and the preferred-self traits are the desired traits. The mean for each measured behavior is 50, with a standard deviation of 10. On average, scores range between 40 and 60. A score of 60 is considered high and indicates a strong expression of the trait. A score of less than 40 is considered low and suggests suppression of the trait. Any extreme score (exceeding 70 or less than 30) may reveal stress and dissatisfaction with life (Gough & Heilbrun, n.d.). The BeMIS was translated into Bahasa Malaysia and the reliability of the Bahasa Malaysia version was tested (See et al., 2011). The reliability and validity of the BeMIS and ACL have been adequately substantiated (See et al., 2011; Center for Credentialing and Education, 2009; Gough & Heilbrun, n.d.).

Procedure

The researchers conducted the first phase of the study 1 year after the start of the university transformation process. They carried out phase 2 of the study 18 months after the university embarked on the transformation agenda, and carried out the third phase two and a half years after the start of the transformation process. The researchers sent questionnaires to all 26 schools in the university, requesting for each school to randomly select five postgraduate students and five undergraduate students to participate in the study. Participants were required to respond to BeMIS twice during each phase. The first time participants chose adjectives that they thought described them as they really were, while the second time they chose adjectives that they would prefer to describe them. In addition to the questionnaire, participants received a participant information and consent form that served to protect the confidentiality of student information.

Results

Postgraduate Students’ Personality Profile

Figure 1 shows the real-self and the preferred-self traits of the postgraduate students in phase 1 of the study. The postgraduate students did not indicate any extreme low scores (less than 30) or extreme high scores (more than 70) during this phase of the study. The researchers performed a t test, and found significant differences (p < 0.05) in 17 of the 37 traits between the real self and the preferred self of postgraduate students. Among these 17 traits, four traits were significantly higher in the real self, compared to the preferred self: negativity, support seeking, self-blaming and security seeking. In contrast, 13 traits were significantly higher in the preferred self than the real self (optimism, achievement, dominance, endurance, order, affiliation, self-confidence, personal adjustment, self-satisfaction, structure valuing, masculinity, respectful and work centered), indicating that the postgraduate students desired to be stronger in these traits.

Figure 1. Postgraduate students’ personality traits (real/preferred) in phase 1.* p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01.

The real-self and the preferred-self traits of the postgraduate students in phase 2 of the study appear in Figure 2. The postgraduate students did not indicate any extreme low scores (less than 30) or extreme high scores (more than 70) during this phase of the study. The researchers found 24 traits to be significantly different (p < 0.05) between the real self and the preferred self of postgraduate students. Among the 24 traits, the researchers found five traits to be significantly higher in the real self than the preferred self: negativity, support seeking, self-blaming, security seeking and intellectualistic. The researchers found 19 of the 24 traits to be significantly higher in the preferred self than the real self (optimistic, achievement, dominance, endurance, order, psychologically perceptive, affiliation, exhibition, self-confidence, personal adjustment, self-satisfaction, creativity, structure valuing, masculinity, respectful, work centered, playful, affected, and scientific), indicating that the postgraduate students desired to be stronger in these traits.

Figure 2. Postgraduate students’ personality traits (real/preferred) in phase 2. * p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01.

In phase 3, as revealed in Figure 3, the institutional transformation produced strong preferred-self traits (scores of more than 60), including optimism, self-satisfaction, creativity, playful, self-confidence and dominance. The postgraduate students indicated scores below 40 for two preferred-self traits—support seeking and security seeking—indicating a suppression of the traits. The postgraduate students did not indicate any extreme low scores (less than 30) or extreme high scores (more than 70) for either the real-self or the preferred-self traits in phase 3. The incongruence between the real-self and the preferred-self traits was most exaggerated in phase 3 (Figure 3), in which the researchers found 25 traits to be significantly different (p < 0.05). The five traits found to be significantly higher in the real self were the same as in phase 2 (negativity, support seeking, self-blaming, security seeking and intellectualistic). The 20 traits found to be significantly higher in the preferred self were similar to the ones in phase 2 (optimistic, achievement, dominance, endurance, order, psychologically perceptive, affiliation, exhibition, self-confidence, personal adjustment, self-satisfaction, creativity, structure valuing, masculinity, respectful, work centered, playful, affected and scientific), with the addition of the nurturance trait.

Figure 3. Postgraduate students’ personality traits (real/preferred) in phase 3. * p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01.

Undergraduate Students’ Personality Profile

The real-self and the preferred-self traits of undergraduate students in phase 1 of the study appear in Figure 4. The undergraduate students did not indicate any extreme low scores (less than 30) or extreme high scores (more than 70) during the first phase of the study. The researchers performed a t test on the real-self and the preferred-self traits of the undergraduate students and found significant differences (p < 0.05). In phase 1, 26 traits of the real self and the preferred self of the undergraduate students had significant differences. Six traits—negativity, support seeking, self-blaming, fault finding, security seeking and intellectualistic—were found to be significantly higher in the real self compared to the preferred self. The other 20 traits were significantly higher in the preferred self than the real self, indicating that the undergraduate students desired to be stronger in the following 20 traits: optimistic, achievement, dominance, endurance, order, psychologically perceptive, nurturance, affiliation, social energy, aggression, self-confidence, personal adjustment, self-satisfaction, creativity, structure valuing, masculinity, respectful, work centered, playful and scientific.

Figure 4. Undergraduate students’ personality traits (real/preferred) in phase 1. * p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01.

Figure 5 shows the real-self and the preferred-self personality traits of the undergraduate students in phase 2. The undergraduate students did not indicate any extreme low scores (less than 30) or extreme high scores (more than 70) in phase 2. In this phase, the researchers found 27 traits to be significantly different (p < 0.05) between the real self and the preferred self. Five of the 27 traits (negativity, support seeking, self-blaming, security seeking and intellectualistic) were found to be significantly higher in the real self than the preferred self. The following 22 of the 27 traits were found to be significantly higher in the preferred self than the real self: optimistic, achievement, dominance, endurance, order, psychologically perceptive, nurturance, affiliation, social energy, exhibition, self-confidence, personal adjustment, self-satisfaction, creativity, structure valuing, masculinity, respectful, work centered, playful, affected, pragmatic and scientific.

Figure 5. Undergraduate students’ personality traits (real/preferred) in phase 2. * p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01.

As found in the real self and the preferred self of the postgraduate students, the incongruence in personality traits of the undergraduate students was most obvious in phase 3. Figure 6 exhibits eight strong preferred-self traits (scores of more than 60) including optimism, achievement, dominance, self-confidence, self-satisfaction, creativity, work centered and playful. In contrast, the undergraduate students indicated scores below 40 for two preferred-self traits—support seeking and security seeking—indicating a suppression of the traits. The undergraduate students did not indicate any extreme low scores (less than 30) or extreme high scores (more than 70) in either the real-self or the preferred-self traits in phase 3. The researchers found 26 traits to be significantly different (p < 0.05). The five traits that were found to be significantly higher in the real self were the same as in phase 2 (negativity, support seeking, self-blaming, security seeking and intellectualistic). Twenty-one traits were found to be significantly higher in the preferred self: optimistic, achievement, dominance, endurance, order, psychologically perceptive, nurturance, affiliation, social energy, exhibition, self-confidence, personal adjustment, self-satisfaction, creativity, structure valuing, masculinity, respectful, work centered, playful, affected and scientific.

Figure 6. Undergraduate students’ personality traits (real/preferred) in phase 3. * p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01.

Personality Changes over Phases of the Transitional Period

     Real-self personality traits. Postgraduate and undergraduate students did not exhibit extreme real-self personality traits (scores of less than 30 or more than 70) throughout the process of the university’s transformation. The researchers performed nonparametric tests to examine changes within the real-self traits of the postgraduate and undergraduate students throughout the three phases of the study (see Figures 8 and 9). As shown in Figures 7 and 8, the researchers found more significant changes within the real-self traits of the postgraduate students compared to those of the undergraduate students. Sixteen real-self traits of the postgraduate students experienced significant changes over the three phases. Among the 16 real-self traits, eight traits (optimism, dominance, social energy, exhibition, self-confidence, structure valuing, masculinity and work centered) increased significantly over the three phases, while two traits (support seeking and self-blaming) decreased significantly over the three phases. Five traits decreased in phase 2, but increased significantly again in phase 3: enthusiasm, change, personal adjustment, creativity and playful. The negativity trait increased during phase 2 but decreased in phase 3. Despite the significant fluctuation of the postgraduate students’ traits, in general, positive traits increased while negative traits decreased. Conversely, the real-self traits of undergraduate students appeared more stable compared to the real-self traits of the postgraduate students (Figure 8). Four real-self traits of undergraduate students experienced significant changes: nurturance, affiliation, playful and intellectualistic. The nurturance and affiliation traits increased significantly over the three phases, whereas the playful and intellectualistic traits decreased significantly during phase 2, but increased again in phase 3.

Figure 7. Changes in postgraduate students’ real-self personality traits across phases 1, 2 and 3.* p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01.

Figure 8. Changes in undergraduate students’ real-self personality traits across phases 1, 2 and 3.* p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01.

     Preferred-self personality traits. As seen in Figures 9 and 10, the preferred-self personality traits of postgraduate and undergraduate students did not fluctuate radically throughout the three phases of the study. However, a greater number of the preferred-self traits of the postgraduate and undergraduate students experienced significant changes than the number of their real-self traits. Figure 9 depicts the comparison of the postgraduate students’ preferred-self traits across the three phases. The result of the nonparametric test showed that 27 of the preferred-self traits of the postgraduate students experienced significant changes over the three phases. Among the 27 traits, 13 traits significantly increased over the three phases (optimism, achievement, dominance, endurance, order, social energy, exhibition, self-confidence, self-satisfaction, creativity, masculinity, respectful and work centered), indicating students’ desire to be stronger in these traits. Four preferred traits (support seeking, self-blaming, self-control and security seeking) decreased significantly over the three phases. The constant decreases in support seeking and self-control indicate that postgraduate students prefer not to seek advice and emotional support and prefer to be less self-controlled and restrained, and the university ought to pay attention to this finding. In addition, eight preferred-self traits (enthusiasm, psychologically perceptive, nurturance, affiliation, personal adjustment, structure valuing, playful and pragmatic) decreased during phase 2, but increased again in phase 3; two preferred-self traits (negativity and counseling readiness) increased during phase 2, but dropped significantly in phase 3. The drop in counseling readiness in phase 3, which is congruent with the constant decrease in support seeking, requires attention from the university, because this finding indicates that the postgraduate students prefer not to accept counseling or professional advice to help them cope with their personal problems and psychological difficulties.

Figure 9. Changes in postgraduate students’ preferred-self personality traits across phases 1, 2 and 3.

* p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01.

As for undergraduate students, 27 preferred-self traits experienced significant changes over the three phases of the study. Fourteen preferred-self traits increased significantly over the three phases of the study: optimism, achievement, dominance, endurance, order, nurturance, affiliation, social energy, exhibition, self-confidence, self-satisfaction, creativity, respectful and work centered, indicating that undergraduate students had a constant desire to be stronger in these traits. On the other hand, four preferred-self traits decreased over the three phases: support seeking, self-blaming, security seeking and intellectualistic. As mentioned before, the constant decrease in support seeking is concerning because it indicates that students prefer not to seek support and advice when they encounter problems or issues. Undergraduate students showed less desire to be more intellectualistic, suggesting that they prefer not to emphasize versatility, unconventionality and individuality. In addition, eight preferred-self traits decreased during phase 2, but increased again in phase 3 (enthusiasm, communality, psychologically perceptive, change, personal adjustment, structure valuing, playful and scientific), while the negativity trait increased during phase 2 but decreased again in phase 3.

Figure 10. Changes in undergraduate students’ preferred-self personality traits across phases 1, 2 and 3.

* p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01.

Clearly, postgraduate and undergraduate students shared similar trends in their preferred-self traits (Figures 9 and 10). Both the postgraduate and undergraduate students recorded constant increases in the same 12 preferred traits (optimism, achievement, dominance, endurance, order, social energy, exhibition, self-confidence, self-satisfaction, creativity, respectful and work centered) and constant decreases in three of the preferred-self traits (support seeking, self-blaming and security seeking).

Discussion

Findings on the personality profile of undergraduate and postgraduate students at this research university in Malaysia are promising. The results suggest that students are coping well with the institutional transformation. In fact, personality traits such as optimism, endurance, dominance, order, exhibition, self-confidence and creativity were highly expressed and developed, as profiled in phase 3 of the study. These highly expressed and developed traits indicate that students are dignified, flexible, hopeful and unyielding in their desire to excel. They also value cognitive activity and insight. However, their profile shows some concerns in traits such as support seeking and security seeking, which dropped continuously during the study. Such findings suggest that students may not be ready for counseling and prefer not to seek help and support when they encounter problems.

Because change in an organization may cause strain and uncertainty (Nelson et al., 1995), Marshall (2010) proposed that early assessment and intervention be implemented accordingly. Assessment of students’ perceptions of the transformation initiatives, particularly on teaching, learning and research activities, would help to evaluate the impact of institutional transformation on the psychological well-being of the students (Loretto, Platt, & Popham, 2010). Preparing and guiding students through the transformation process helps them to adapt and thrive (Marshall, 2010; Tosevski, Milovancevic, & Gajic, 2010). Loretto et al. (2010) found that preparation for change and timely training with open communication may build trust and minimize uncertainty by increasing control.

Gradual and orderly structural policy changes may facilitate adjustment and minimize needless stressors. Secrecy and poor communication may result in poor morale and low self-satisfaction (Becker et al., 2004; Nelson et al., 1995; Smollan & Sayers, 2009). In contrast, promoting transparency and coordination in the learning environment may encourage attitudes of independence, objectivity, industriousness, respectfulness, confidence, assertiveness, initiative and enthusiasm. These interventions may help ensure the mental well-being of students, which in turn affects their academic achievement positively and contributes toward the success of the university transformation process. Tosevski et al. (2010) have suggested building trust in instructor-student relationships to promote autonomy and clarify role expectations. Practicing a student-driven learning approach may inspire creativity and leadership, bringing forth greater self-satisfaction among students.

As the university moves toward becoming a world-class institution, students fit themselves into the vision and mission of the university. In this study, the differences between the real-self and the preferred-self traits were most exaggerated in the third phase. When the preferred-self traits are much higher than the real-self traits, students may feel frustrated. According to Rogers (2007), incongruence between real and preferred value in personality traits may increase one’s vulnerability to stress or anxiety. Mild anxiety brings forth self-awareness in response to the incongruence in personality and may result in therapeutic change and the learning of new coping skills (Rogers, 2007). The university can provide counseling services to assist those students who need help.

Conclusion

The APEX initiative is transforming the selected research university to embrace excellence, innovation and dynamism in moving toward the goal of becoming a world-class institution. The results of this study suggest that university students are coping well with the institutional transformation. In fact, many desired personality traits became more strongly expressed and developed during the transformation phases. It is crucial to continually monitor the personality profile and psychological well-being of students. The institution also can implement proactive interventions to support the mental health and development of human capital in all students.

References

Becker, L. R., Beukes, L. D., Botha, A., Botha, A. C., Botha, J. J., Botha, M., . . .Vorster, A. (2004). The impact of university incorporation on college lecturers. Higher Education, 48, 153–172.

Center for Credentialing and Education. (2009). The BeMIS Personality Report for Sample Client. Greensboro, NC: Author.

Connor-Smith, J. K., & Flachsbart, C. (2007). Relations between personality and coping: A meta-analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 1080–1107. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.93.6.1080

Fernandez, J. L. (2010). An exploratory study of factors influencing the decision of students to study at Universiti Sains Malaysia. Kajian Malaysia, 28(2), 107–136.

Gladstone, J., & Reynolds, T. (1997). Single session group work intervention in response to employee stress during workforce transformation. Social Work With Groups, 20, 33–49. doi:10.1300/J009v20n01_04

Goretti, B., Portaccio, E., Zipoli, V., Razzolini, L., & Amato, M. P. (2010). Coping strategies, cognitive impairment, psychological variables and their relationship with quality of life in multiple sclerosis. Neurological Sciences, 31(Suppl. 2), S227–S230.

Gough, H. G., & Heilbrun, A. B., Jr. (n.d.). Assess psychological traits with a full sphere of descriptive adjectives. Retrieved from http://www.mindgarden.com/products/figures/aclresearch.htm

Gough, H. G., & Heilbrun, A. B., Jr. (1983). The Adjective Check List manual (2nd ed.). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

Horng, J., Hu, M., Hong, J., & Lin, Y. (2011). Innovation strategies for organizational change in a tea restaurant culture: A social behavior perspective. Social Behavior and Personality, 39, 265–273. doi:10.2224/sbp.2011.39.2.265

Lievens, F., Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S. (2009). Personality scale validities increase throughout medical school. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 1514–1535. doi:10.1037/a0016137

Loretto, W., Platt, S., & Popham, F. (2010). Workplace change and employee mental health: Results from a longitudinal study. British Journal of Management, 21, 526–540. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8551.2009.00658.x

Marshall, S. (2010). Change, technology and higher education: Are universities capable of organisational change? ALT-J, Research in Learning Technology, 18, 179–192. doi:10.1080/09687769.2010.529107

Ministry of Higher Education. (2011). The National Higher Education Action Plan, Phase 2 (2011–2015). Retrieved from http://www.mohe.gov.my/transformasi/fasa2/psptn2-eng.pdf

Nelson, A., Cooper, C. L., & Jackson, P. R. (1995). Uncertainty amidst change: The impact of privatization on employee job satisfaction and well-being. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 68, 57–71. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8325.1995.tb00688.x

Oreg, S., & Sverdlik, N. (2011). Ambivalence toward imposed change: The conflict between dispositional resistance to change and the orientation toward the change agent. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96, 337–349. doi:10.1037/a0021100

Oreg, S., Vakola, M., & Armenakis, A. (2011). Change recipients’ reactions to organizational change: A 60-year review of quantitative studies. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 47, 461–524. doi:10.1177/0021886310396550

Razak, D. A. (2009). In search of a world-class university of tomorrow: The importance of the APEX initiative. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Oxford Fajar.

Rogers, C. R. (2007). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 44, 240–248. doi:10.1037/0033-3204.44.3.240

Schraeder, M., Swamidass, P. M., & Morrison, R. (2006). Employee involvement, attitudes and reactions to technology changes. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 12, 85–100. doi:10.1177/107179190601200306

See, C. M., Abdullah, M. N. L. Y., Teoh, B. S. G., & Yaacob, N. R. N. (2011). Profiles of an Accelerated Programme for Excellence (APEX) university community: Personality traits and psychosocial behavior. Monograph Series of USM, 14, 1–88.

Smollan, R. K., & Sayers, J. G. (2009). Organizational culture, change and emotions: A qualitative study. Journal of Change Management, 9, 435–457. doi:10.1080/14697010903360632

Tosevski, D. L., Milovancevic, M. P., & Gajic, S. D. (2010). Personality and psychopathology of university students. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 23, 48–52. doi:10.1097/YCO.0b013e328333d625

Wan, A. M. W. M. (2008). The Malaysian National Higher Education Action Plan: Redefining autonomy and academic freedom under the APEX experiment. Paper presented at the Asaihl Conference, University Autonomy: Interpretation and Variation, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.

Wynaden, D., Wichmann, H., & Murray, S. (2013). A synopsis of the mental health concerns of university students: Results of a text-based online survey from one Australian university. Higher Education Research & Development, 32, 840–860. doi:10.1080/07294360.2013.777032

See Ching Mey is Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the Division of Industry and Community Network at the Universiti Sains Malaysia. Melissa Ng Lee Yen Abdullah is a senior lecturer in the School of Educational Studies at the Universiti Sains Malaysia. Chuah Joe Yin is the assistant registrar in the Division of Industry and Community Network at the Universiti Sains Malaysia. Correspondence can be addressed to See Ching Mey, Division of Industry and Community Network, 6th Floor, Chancellory Building, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Penang, Malaysia, cmsee@usm.my.

The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and Counseling Outcomes

Oct 2, 2014 | Article, Volume 4 - Issue 4

Lisa D. Hawley, Todd W. Leibert, Joel A. Lane

In this study, we examined the relationship between various indices of socioeconomic status (SES) and counseling outcomes among clients at a university counseling center. We also explored links between SES and three factors that are generally regarded as facilitative of client change in counseling: motivation, treatment expectancy and social support. Regression analyses showed that, overall, SES predicted positive changes in symptom checklists over the course of treatment. Individual SES variables predicting positive change were educational attainment and whether the client had health insurance. SES was not associated with motivation, treatment expectancy or social support. Implications for SES research and counseling are discussed.

Keywords: socioeconomic status, counseling outcomes, social support, motivation, treatment expectancy, university counseling center

There is a robust relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and mental health (Goodman & Huang, 2001; Strohschein, 2005), a finding that researchers have consistently replicated (Adler, Epel, Castellazzo, & Ickovics, 2000; Kraus, Adler, & Chen, 2012; Muntaner, Eaton, Miech, & O’Campo, 2004; von Soest, Bramness, Pedersen, & Wichstrøm, 2012). Furthermore, researchers have linked SES to important outcomes in a number of domains, including academic achievement and employability (Blustein et al., 2002) and health service utilization (Goodman & Huang, 2001). Pope-Davis and Coleman (2001) argued that SES is an important cultural variable that is closely aligned with race and gender. Despite the risk factor that SES poses for mental health and well-being, the current literature does not empirically represent SES as much as other cultural variables, especially with regard to counseling outcome research (Falconnier, 2009; Liu, 2011). To respond to this shortcoming, we investigated potential links between SES and counseling outcome.

SES and Mental Health

SES as a Variable of Study

In the last 20 years, two content analyses have reviewed cultural variables and SES within counseling (Liu, Soleck, Hopps, Dunston, & Pickett, 2004; Pope-Davis, Ligiero, Liang, & Codrington, 2001). Liu et al. (2004) reviewed three journals from 1981–2000 and concluded that SES was mainly studied post hoc, and used primarily to account for unexplained variance. Similarly, focusing on the Journal of Multicultural Counseling between the years of 1985 and 1999, Pope-Davis et al. (2001) analyzed the content of articles for prominent multicultural variables and found that SES was underexamined as a primary variable of study. Taken together, both content analyses pointed to an overall lack of attention to SES in mental health counseling literature.

There is agreement regarding the multicultural and social justice relevance of economic empowerment and SES in the field of counseling (Ratts, Toporek, & Lewis, 2010); however, available SES counseling literature is predominantly conceptual and not empirical. There are several possibilities for the overall lack of empirical investigations into SES and counseling outcomes. First, only recently have mental health counselors made a concerted effort to empirically demonstrate counseling outcomes (Hays, 2010). In addition, Smith, Chambers, and Bratini (2009) opined that, while research on the pathogenic impact of poverty on emotional well-being is robust and logical, the development of practitioner-based interventions has been limited. The counseling profession has not been a leader in empirically studying this complex variable, which further limits the profession’s contributions to research-based interventions. Moreover, SES is complex (Liu et al., 2004); its etiology is often interconnected with mental health risk factors. One challenge of SES research, then, is effectively conceptualizing which aspect of the variable to address first. This challenge is best expressed in the old adage “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” In other words, do lower SES levels lead to higher rates of mental health disorders or do higher rates of mental health disorders lead to lower SES levels? Eaton, Muntaner, Bovasso, and Smith (2001) identified four possible answers: (a) Lower SES raises the risk of developing a mental health disorder, (b) lower SES prolongs the duration of a mental health disorder episode, (c) mental health disorders lead to downward social mobility or (d) mental health disorders hinder attainment of upward SES status. It also is plausible that these answers are not mutually exclusive, further complicating the role of SES in mental health.

Objective Versus Subjective Indicators of SES

Another possible reason for the limited pursuit of SES research is the difficulty in operationalizing SES. As a construct, SES is multifaceted, impeding the use of discrete variables (Liu et al., 2004). Frequently it is measured using objective, actuarial data such as household income, occupation, zip code and healthcare coverage. However, Braveman et al. (2005) demonstrated that objective indicators of SES, such as education and income, are inadequate because they are not interchangeable with other SES indicators of wealth, education and neighborhood (e.g., zip code clusters). Braveman et al. (2005) concluded that better measures were needed, especially subjective SES measures, such as perceptions of financial security and broad, culturally driven definitions such as lower-, middle- and upper-class SES levels (Adler et al., 2000; Dennis et al., 2012). Other researchers have reached similar conclusions after using both subjective and objective markers of SES (Adler et al., 2000; Hillerbrand, 1988). Even formal measures of SES, including the Hollingshead’s SES indicator (Hollingshead, 2011) and the Duncan Socioeconomic Index (Duncan, 1961), make limited use of subjective measurement strategies. Liu, a leading advocate for the study of SES in counseling, emphasized the need for a multidimensional approach for data collection to best capture contemporary client experiences (Liu, 2011; Liu et al., 2004). In this article, we integrate subjective and objective variables and examine their impact on clinical outcomes.

SES and Clinical Outcomes

In general, psychotherapy reviews show that higher SES is associated with greater therapy retention (Clarkin & Levy, 2004; Petry, Tennen, & Affleck, 2000). However, SES is not consistently related to symptom reduction (Petry et al., 2000). On the other hand, SES does relate to counselor perceptions of the client. For example, in one study at a university counseling center, 163 case files were randomly selected to evaluate the association between the Hollingshead SES rating scale and therapy outcome (Hillerbrand, 1988). According to the results, counselors rated clients with lower SES levels as having greater dysfunction, greater goal disagreement about treatment and less successful counseling outcomes. Mental health practitioners have perceived clients as less motivated when they have lower SES levels (Leeder, 1996) and lack similar social support (Beatty, Kamarck, Matthews, & Shiffman, 2011). In another study, counselors and counselor trainees rated case vignettes and videos of presenting problems featuring clients from either lower or higher SES (Dougall & Schwartz, 2011). Again, counselors rated lower-SES clients as having more severe problems than higher-SES clients. These results reflect other research investigating perceptions and attitudes about lower-SES populations. Historically, clinicians have tended to view poorer clients as lacking in effort (Feagin, 1975; Kluegel & Smith, 1986) and motivation (Seccombe, James, & Walters, 1998), and as being apathetic and passive (Leeder, 1996). Although these studies provide some useful information regarding the present line of inquiry, studies related to clinical outcome and SES as a main variable of study are sparse (Liu, 2011). There is a need to better refine and understand the relationship between SES and mental health.

Present Study

To address the dearth of counseling outcome studies examining SES, the primary purpose of the present study was to prospectively explore the relationship between SES indicators and counseling outcome. In light of the aforementioned SES literature (e.g., Braveman et al., 2005; Adler et al., 2000), we conceptualized SES as including a combination of objective data and subjective self-perceptions regarding class. Thus, in operationalizing SES as a variable of study, we collected commonly researched objective indices—namely educational attainment, household income and health insurance status, as well as subjective data including client perceptions of financial security and class level.

In the present study, we also examined potential links between SES and three psychological variables thought to facilitate positive change through counseling: client motivation, treatment expectancy and social support. Also of interest was the degree to which the expectation of positive outcome through therapy was linked to SES and counseling outcome. If lower-SES clients indeed fit the perception of increased apathy, we conjectured that these clients would report lower levels of expectation for improvement. Lastly, social support was relevant to this study because it can minimize the impact of lower SES on mental health (Beatty et al., 2011). For example, in a recent study of homeless individuals, social support mediated everyday stressors (Irwin, LaGory, Richey, & Fitzpatrick, 2008). Additionally, Beatty et al. (2011) showed that lower childhood SES was related to less perceived social support. In summary, lower SES level is potentially related to reduced client motivation, treatment expectancy and social support.

Thus, we tested two main hypotheses. First, we hypothesized that lower SES levels were linked to lower levels of client motivation, treatment expectancy and subjective social support. Second, we hypothesized that objective SES variables (e.g., education level, income, health insurance status) and subjective SES variables (e.g., perceived financial security, perceived SES) predicted counseling outcome. Because results have been inconclusive about the primacy of objective versus subjective SES variables, as well as the most predictive combination of SES variables, we entered both sets of predictors into one block of a regression analysis to explore which variables uniquely accounted for variance in outcome. Finally, we tested whether psychological variables (e.g., client motivation, treatment expectancy, social support) explained outcome variance beyond that accounted for by SES variables.

Method

Participants and Procedure

Study participants were adult clients starting counseling at an on-campus university training center. The center, located in a Midwestern suburban area, serves both university students and individuals from surrounding communities at no cost, and is staffed by students enrolled in a CACREP-accredited counseling program.

Between January and April 2010, front desk staff at the training center provided new adult clients with the consent form and study measures, which included the Outcome Questionnaire-45.2 (OQ; Lambert et al., 2003), one item from the Social Adjustment Scale-Self Report (SAS-SR; Weissman & Bothwell, 1976), the Subjective Social Support (SSS) subscale of the Duke Social Support Index (DSSI; Blazer, Hybels, & Hughes, 1990), the Treatment Expectancy Scale (TES; Sotsky et al., 1991), and numerous demographic questions including gender, race, age, relationship status, reasons for entering counseling, income, educational attainment and health insurance status. Clients who consented to participate completed all forms and returned them to the front desk before beginning their initial counseling session. Participants completed the OQ prior to each subsequent counseling session. The method of asking participants to complete OQs prior to each session offers at least two advantages for outcome researchers (Ogles, Lambert, & Fields, 2002): (a) It reduces confusion over when to administer outcome measures, and (b) it reduces potential data loss from unexpected dropout because the last available measure serves as the posttest (Ogles et al., 2002). In the current study, 54 clients consented to participate and completed an initial OQ, at least one additional OQ (posttest) and the other study measures.

The clients reported coming to counseling to address various personal and career-related issues such as relationship difficulties, anxiety, depression, job loss and career transition. The majority estimated that their presenting concern had lasted on and off for the last few years (38.8%). The ages of the participating clients ranged from 19–79 years old (M = 38.76, SD = 12.41) and most (61.2%) were female. The majority of the sample described themselves as Caucasian (91.8%) and married/partnered (30.6%). Others reported being unmarried (24.5%), divorced/widowed/separated (22.4%) or dating (22.4%). The majority of the sample reported being employed (65.3%), with 16.3% indicating no job and 18.4% leaving the response blank. One participant was a university student.

Measures

Outcome Questionnaire-45.2. The OQ is a standardized, 45-item self-report instrument that is commonly used as a general “index of mental health” (Lambert et al., 2003, p. 10). The items utilize 5-point Likert scale responses ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (almost always) to determine the severity of various symptoms and psychosocial stressors, resulting in a score ranging from 0–180. Concurrent validity has been established between the OQ Total Score and various other measures of symptomology (e.g., Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale [BASIS-32] Depression and Anxiety subscale; Doerfler, Addis, & Moran, 2002). Construct validity is demonstrated by the OQ’s sensitivity to client change and ability to discriminate between clinical and non-clinical populations (Lambert et al., 2003). The manual (Lambert et al., 2003) reports high internal consistency (a = .93) and 10-week test-retest reliability (.66–.86).

Objective SES. Objective SES was operationalized using three indicators: education level, income and health insurance. For education level, participants indicated their educational attainment, with answer choices ranging from 1 (some high school) to 8 (Ph.D. or equivalent). Income level was assessed by asking participants to indicate their yearly household income, with a continuum of choices ranging from 1 (under $10,000) to 8 (over $100,000) in $10,000–$20,000 increments. Health insurance was dichotomously assessed by asking participants to indicate whether they were receiving health insurance benefits—either through an employer, Medicaid or other source—or were uninsured (see Table 1 for descriptive statistics regarding the SES variables).

     Subjective SES. Subjective SES was operationalized using two indicators: perceived financial security and perceived SES. Perceived financial security was measured using one item from the SAS-SR (Weissman & Bothwell, 1976). Participants were asked if they had had enough money for their financial needs in the past 2 weeks. The item was rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (I had great financial difficulty) to 5 (I had enough money for needs). Regarding perceived SES, participants were asked to choose “the economic class that best describes you” on a three-point scale corresponding to either 1 (lower), 2 (middle) or 3 (upper economic class). With each subjective variable, we did not analyze differences between financially independent versus dependent clients since only one participant was a university student.

Table 1

Frequencies of Participant Responses for SES Variables (N = 49)

     Subjective Social Support. Social support was measured using the SSS subscale of the DSSI (Blazer et al., 1990). The SSS consists of 10 items rated on a 3-point scale; for this study, however, a 5-point Likert-type scale was used, resulting in a possible range of 10–50. Prior studies incorporating the 5-point scale have demonstrated enhanced internal consistency compared to the 3-point scale of the original version, and comparable scale correlations indicative of concurrent validity (Leibert, 2010). Items pertain either to the perceived frequency of positive, fulfilling family and peer interactions (1 = none of the time, 5 = all of the time) or to the degree of satisfaction with family and peer relationships (1 = extremely dissatisfied, 5 = extremely satisfied). Internal consistency was good in the present study (a = .82).

     Client Motivation for Therapy Scale. Motivation, conceptualized using self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), postulates six types of motivation along a continuum from intrinsic to external to no motivation (i.e., amotivation). The 24-item Client Motivation for Therapy Scale (CMOTS; Pelletier, Tuson, & Haddad, 1997) has six 4-item subscales that measure each type of motivation while one is receiving therapy. We were interested in two CMOTS subscales that could be used before counseling began in order to assess pretreatment motivation levels potentially associated with SES variables. Those subscales included identified motivation (e.g., attending counseling “because I would like to make changes to my current situation”) and external motivation (e.g., attending counseling “because other people think that it’s a good idea for me to be in therapy”). Participants rated their reasons for participating in counseling on a 7-point scale (1 = does not correspond at all, 7 = corresponds exactly). A summary score for each subscale was created using its arithmetic mean. The CMOTS was validated on 138 inpatient and outpatient clients seeking help for a variety of mental health concerns (e.g., self-esteem, interpersonal problems; Pelletier et al., 1997). Internal reliability coefficients in the present study were acceptable for identified motivation (a = .76) and external motivation (a = .80).

Treatment Expectancy Scale. Client expectation for positive treatment outcome was measured using the TES (Sotsky et al., 1991). The TES consists of a single item: “Which of the following best describes your expectations about what is likely to happen as a result of your treatment?”, with responses ranging from “I don’t expect to feel any different” (1) to “I expect to feel completely better” (5). Although reliability data was not reported, the TES was one of the strongest client predictors of outcome in the National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program, a large randomized control trial (Meyer et al., 2002; Sotsky et al., 1991).

Analyses

Data analyses followed the guidelines for outcome research that Ogles et al. (2002) outlined. Primary analyses included correlation and multiple regression techniques, beginning with tests of the assumptions of regression (Cohen, Cohen, West, & Aiken, 2003). A repeated measures t test was used to evaluate pre-post change, and ANCOVAs were used to test the need to include various covariates as control variables in the regression analyses. For each participant, the initial OQ total score was considered the pretest score and the last OQ completed was used as the posttest. Because computing a simple difference score between pretest and posttest is subject to regression to the mean (i.e., highest initial scores change the most), we analyzed outcome by partialing out the OQ pretest scores from OQ posttest scores in the first step of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis (Hill & Lambert, 2004). Before conducting hypothesis tests, we inspected data for potential violations of univariate and multivariate assumptions in multiple regression analyses, including outliers, atypical scores, multicollinearity and assumptions of linearity, normality and homoscedasticity (Cohen et al., 2003). Five cases showed highly atypical scores according to recommended cutoff guidelines (Cohen et al., 2003) in small data sets (i.e., DFFITS > 1) and were removed before hypothesis testing. No further problems were evident.

Initial analyses were conducted to determine whether any demographic variables should be included as covariates in the regression model. Aside from age and length of time in counseling, demographic variables were categorical: gender, marital status (unmarried versus married) and employment status (unemployed versus employed). These variables were dummy coded for the analysis. Separate ANCOVAs were run for the three categorical variables with OQ pretest scores entered as the covariate. The three categorical variables were not significantly related to outcome (ps ranged from .29 to .84). A simple regression evaluating age on outcome with OQ pretest scores partialed out showed no significance (p = .77). Because the amount of time in counseling may have affected how much change had occurred at posttest, we regressed OQ posttest scores on length of time in counseling, controlling for OQ pretest scores. The regression showed no effect of length of time in counseling on amount of change (p = .12). Therefore, no demographic variables were included in the hierarchical multiple regression.

Results

A repeated measures t test showed that client OQ’s significantly improved from pretreatment (M = 72.6, SD = 19.1) to the final session of counseling (M = 64.0, SD = 20.0), t(48) = 5.42, p < .001. To test our first hypothesis that lower SES levels would be linked to lower levels of client motivation, treatment expectancy and subjective social support, we conducted zero-order correlations for continuous variables. Table 2 displays the results, starting with objective SES variables (e.g., education level, income) and subjective SES variables (e.g., perceived financial security, perceived SES), followed by the two indicators of motivation (identified and external), as well as treatment expectancy and social support. For the dichotomously coded objective SES variable, health insurance status, independent samples t tests were conducted on the four dependent variables of identified motivation, external motivation, treatment expectancy and subjective social support. Reported effect sizes adhered to Cohen’s (1992) conventions for correlations, with small, medium and large effect sizes corresponding to r = .10, r= .30, and r= .50, respectively.

Table 2

Summary of Intercorrelations for Continuous SES Indicators with Social Support, Treatment Expectancy and Motivation Scores

Note. N = 49; financial security = perceived financial security; social support = Subjective Social Support; treatment expectancy = Treatment Expectancy Scale. Health insurance status is a categorical variable and is not included in this table.

* p < .05. ** p < .01.

As shown in Table 2, neither of the continuous objective SES variables (e.g., educational attainment, income level) significantly related to identified motivation, external motivation, treatment expectancy or subjective social support. The independent samples t tests indicated no significant effect regarding insurance status (p > .05). The subjective SES variable, perceived financial security, significantly and positively correlated with subjective social support (r = .40, p < .01), with a medium to large effect size. Consistent with our hypothesis, clients who reported feeling more secure financially also felt more supported by their social network; conversely, clients feeling less supported by their social network felt less secure financially. The other subjective SES variable, perceived SES, did not significantly correlate with motivation, treatment expectancy or subjective social support. Therefore, the overall pattern of findings did not support the first hypothesis.

Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis

We used hierarchical multiple regression to test the second hypothesis that objective SES variables (e.g., education level, income, health insurance status) and subjective SES variables (e.g., perceived financial security, perceived SES) predicted counseling outcome. In the first step of the hierarchy, we entered OQ pretest scores to control for initial differences in symptoms. In the second step, we entered objective and subjective SES variables. In the third step, we entered psychological variables (subjective social support, treatment expectancy and client motivation) to test whether these variables accounted for additional outcome variance beyond that which SES variables explained. Because we did not have hypotheses about the primacy of specific individual variables’ effects on counseling outcome, we examined semipartial correlations (sr) to identify which predictors within each step had the greatest impact on outcome.

Results of the hierarchical regression analysis appear in Table 3. Controlling for OQ pretest scores in the first step, results supported the hypothesis that SES variables significantly predicted counseling outcome, ΔR² = .05, F(5, 42) = 2.93, p < .05, a small to medium size effect. Taking into account the other predictors, the following two of the six SES variables significantly predicted outcome: education level and health insurance status. The semipartial correlations indicated that education level and health insurance status accounted for 3% and 4% of outcome variance, respectively, small to medium effect sizes. The beta coefficient for education indicated that for every unit increase in education, clients had, on average, a 3.6-point reduction in their final OQ scores relative to their initial level (t = -2.49, p < .05). Similarly, clients who had health insurance reported an average 8.7 OQ points greater positive change than those who did not have insurance (t = –2.60, p < .05). In the third step of the regression, after controlling for both OQ pretest scores and SES variables, the psychological variables (subjective social support, treatment expectancy and client motivation) did not predict significantly more variance in outcome, ΔR² = .02, F(5, 37) = 0.90, p > .05.

Table 3

Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses Predicting OQ Posttest Score

Note. r_sp = semipartial correlation coefficient.Initial covariate in the first step was Outcome Questionnaire-45 pretest score. Negative signs indicate lower posttreatment symptoms. OQ = Outcome Questionnaire-45; financial security = perceived financial security; perceived SES = perceived socioeconomic status; social support = Subjective Social Support; treatment expectancy = Treatment Expectancy Scale; health insurance = Health Insurance Status; coding: no = 0, yes = 1.

*p < .05. **p < .01.

Discussion

Overall, SES variables significantly predicted counseling outcome. In particular, two of the objective SES variables—education level and health insurance status—each individually predicted greater improvement in counseling, explaining 3% and 4% of the outcome variance, respectively. Contrary to expectations, income level and the subjective SES variables did not predict outcome. Overall, our hypothesis that SES variables would relate to social support, treatment expectancy and motivation was not supported. However, the subjective SES variable—perceived financial security—significantly and positively related to subjective social support.

Surprisingly, as a whole, SES variables did not correlate with clients’ subjective sense of social support. The only exception was a significant positive link between subjective social support and perceived financial security. It may be that the perception of having sufficient funds to meet recent individual or family needs aligns with the perception of having a supportive social network. However, the finding that income level did not correlate with social support was interesting given the common perception among mental health workers that low-income clients lack social support (Krause & Borawski-Clark, 1995). In this study, from the perspectives of lower-income clients, there were no perceptions of support system deficits. The degree and frequency with which one experiences positive interactions with peers is the basis of the SSS instrument. Within SES research, social support measures may include community social support, as well as family and peers. The definition of social support may differ from participant to participant. One of the challenges of social support within SES is that lower-SES individuals often experience similar increased economic stressors to others in their social support network (Mickelson & Kubzansky, 2003). Therefore, a more limited study using multiple social support measures is a possible direction for future research.

Though the first hypothesis was not supported, the results indicate a trend in the hypothesized direction, with higher perceived financial security being marginally related to treatment expectancy, accounting for 7% of the variance, a medium-sized effect. In other words, before counseling began, clients who reported a greater sense of financial security also had greater expectation of a positive treatment outcome. There was, however, no significant relationship between all other SES indicators and either motivation type. Given that this hypothesis was based on studies of perceptions among mental health professionals working with low-income clients (e.g., Dougall & Schwartz, 2011; Hillerbrand, 1988; Krause & Borawski-Clark, 1995; Leeder, 1996; Seccombe et al., 1998), it is possible that the findings are indicative of SES-related biases in the helping professions. That is, the overall findings of the present study did not reveal significant relationships between SES and social support, treatment expectancy or client motivation, even though clinicians have frequently reported beliefs that such relationships exist.

Of the three objective SES variables, education level and health insurance status each predicted greater improvement in counseling. Education level is commonly used in poverty research, which shows that lower education is associated with decreased physical and mental health. For example, Goodman, Slap, and Huang (2003) found that lower household income and parental education were associated with depression and obesity. Similarly, SES studies using neighborhood indices such as zip code or concentrated populations with similar income levels often find lower-income communities facing challenges such as lack of quality education, lower education levels and fewer employment opportunities, with these chronic stressors impacting depressive symptoms (Groh, 2007).

The second finding of health insurance status contributing to improvements through counseling is particularly intriguing given that counseling services in the present study were offered at no cost. Arguably, access to health insurance provided a safety net, a positive external resource that allowed low- and high-income clients alike to focus on the internal work of change in counseling. That is, health insurance fulfilled a basic need, which in turn seemed to aid clients in benefiting from counseling. This finding is important given the recent attempts to obtain mental health parity. The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (2008) was passed in an effort to reduce costs of mental health services by offering treatment continuously. Recent research highlights the political and societal complexity of mental health parity (Hernandez & Uggen, 2012). Within counseling, there is a lack of research focused on client outcomes and perceptions of healthcare. And in the present study, the finding of a relationship between perceptions of healthcare and outcomes was unexpected. Outside the counseling literature, recent studies focused on parity at the macro level have found disconnects between providers and consumers related to education. In a 2009 study in California, many consumers stated a need for increased education about parity (Rosenbach, Lake, Williams, & Buck, 2009). The current research direction focuses more on utilization and access issues and less on the impact on outcomes. The implications for counselors lie in the ability to provide individuals with easy access to mental healthcare and to reduce or remove the stigmatization often associated with receiving mental health services. Furthermore, current research suggests the need for service providers to educate clients on mental healthcare options. The myriad of choices, rules and requirements can be overwhelming for clients already experiencing elevated distress. In conclusion, counselors benefit the profession by advocating for clients and not being silent stakeholders. Further research is necessary to understand this finding and its implications for policy and service provisions.

The present results show that subjective and objective measures collectively predicted outcomes. Within the counseling literature, there are few studies that both empirically study subjective and objective measures, as well as examine SES measures with clinical outcomes in counseling. The results also support the premise that SES is a complex variable warranting further empirical inquiry in counseling research (Liu, 2011). If SES is predictive of client outcomes in a counseling training program, then further research to investigate discrete variables and causal relationships is necessary. Current trends in SES health research involve the inclusion of subjective measures. Studies have shown that subjective low SES is linked to poorer health outcomes (Adler et al., 2000). Professional counselors can both emulate the current health research already using both subjective and objective measures in clinical outcomes and forge their own SES research agenda.

Limitations

Several methodological limitations warrant attention. First, the small sample size, comprised mostly of Caucasian and female clients, limits the generalizability of this study. Given that SES is linked with race and gender (Pope-Davis & Coleman, 2001), a heterogeneous sample would enrich the study’s findings. Along those lines, it is conceivable that the health insurance–outcome link in this study was a spurious correlation that might be accounted for by a third unmeasured variable. In short, the sample of convenience and the naturalistic correlational design reduces internal validity. Though each counselor had similar coursework prior to practicum, counselor trainees were not the same. We made no attempt to control variables such as counseling approach, counselor competence or client diagnosis; each of these variables may have changed the results of this study. Finally, a possible confounding contextual factor was that this study occurred within a time of significant economic challenge. Similar to mandated healthcare and parity, the economic contexts in which SES studies occur are important areas for further study. Despite these limitations, the study provides important contributions and has implications for further research.

Implications and Future Research

The results of the present study are consistent with the work of researchers who have argued that SES variables have complex relationships with one another and with mental health (Liu, 2011). When measured together, subjective and objective SES measures impacted clinical outcomes. As individual variables, however, only educational level and health insurance status predicted improved outcome. Indices of SES have not evolved to the point that they can be measured with discrete variables. Counseling SES research would benefit from further development of SES indices, as well as comprehensive studies using measures as a whole within broader contextual issues to fully understand the utility in mental health counseling research.

Results also show that clients who had access to health insurance experienced greater amelioration of symptoms even though counseling services in the present study were provided at no cost. This result was unexpected and must be studied further. Future research might examine whether access to insurance satisfies a basic need of security, which, in turn, improves counseling outcomes. Increasingly, states are incorporating mental health parity (Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, 2008); therefore, studies must review the long-term effects associated with clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness. Regarding short-term findings, Lang (2013) found that suicide rates were significantly reduced when states required parity between physical and mental health benefits. Also, studies controlling for counselor and client differences are needed. For example, an experimental design might examine counselor countertransference regarding lower-SES clients. Results might show how much counselor perceptions could be altered on the one hand, and biased on the other. This study also indicates a further need for counselors to understand the contextual influences of SES with regard to counseling outcome. It is important for counselors to embody the full characteristics of their professional identity—including that of mental health advocate—to address SES issues involving both misconceptions and gaps in SES research.

Conclusion

The present study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding the effect of client SES on counseling outcome. Results show that higher education and access to health insurance—even at a free counseling clinic—may improve counseling outcome. For all clients, possession of health insurance augmented the amount of improvement. Although these findings should be regarded as tentative, SES appears to be an important client variable affecting the success of counseling and meriting further research. The results also underscore the need for a comprehensive SES measure to gain a more complete picture of how SES influences counseling outcome. Finally, we found no links between lower SES levels and motivation, treatment expectancy and perceived social support. An important implication for the practicing counselor is to value the nuances of SES as potential influences on client outcome. Counselors would benefit from exploring potential SES stressors with clients and accessible resources to minimize mental health stressors and improve counseling outcomes.

References

Adler, N. E., Epel, E. S., Castellazzo, G., & Ickovics, J. R. (2000). Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: Preliminary data in healthy white women. Health Psychology, 19, 586–592. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.19.6.586

Beatty, D. L., Kamarck, T. W., Matthews, K. A., & Shiffman, S. (2011). Childhood socioeconomic status is associated with psychosocial resources in African Americans: The Pittsburgh Healthy Heart Project. Health Psychology, 30, 472–480. doi:10.1037/a0024304

Blazer, D., Hybels, C., & Hughes, D. C. (1990). Duke social support index. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.

Blustein, D. L., Chaves, A. P., Diemer, M. A., Gallagher, L. A., Marshall, K. G., Sirin, S., & Bhati, K. S. (2002). Voices of the forgotten half: The role of social class in the school-to-work transition. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49, 311–323. doi:10.1037//0022-0167.49.3.311

Braveman, P. A., Cubbin, C., Egerter, S., Chideya, S., Marchi, K. S., Metzler, M., & Posner, S. (2005). Socioeconomic status in health research: One size does not fit all. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 294, 2879–2888. doi:10.1001/jama.294.22.2879

Clarkin, J. F., & Levy, K. N. (2004). The influence of client variables on psychotherapy. In M. J. Lambert (Ed.), Bergin & Garfield’s handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change (5th ed., pp. 194–226). New York, NY: Wiley & Sons.

Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155–159. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155

Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Dennis, E. F., Webb, D. A., Lorch, S. A., Mathew, L., Bloch, J. R., & Culhane, J. F. (2012). Subjective social status and maternal health in a low income urban population. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 16, 834–843. doi:10.1007/s10995-011-0791-z

Doerfler, L. A., Addis, M. E., & Moran, P. W. (2002). Evaluating mental health outcomes in an inpatient setting: Convergent and divergent validity of the OQ-45 and BASIS-32. The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, 29, 394–403.

Dougall, J. L., & Schwartz, R. C. (2011). The influence of client socioeconomic status on psychotherapists’ attributional biases and countertransference reactions. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 65, 249–265.

Duncan, O. D. (1961). A socioeconomic index for all occupations. In A. J. Reiss, Jr., O. D. Duncan, P. K. Hatt, & C. C. North (Eds.), Occupations and social status (pp. 109–138). New York, NY: Free Press.

Eaton, W. W., Muntaner, C., Bovasso, G., & Smith, C. (2001). Socioeconomic status and depressive syndrome: The role of inter- and intra-generational mobility, government assistance, and work environment. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 42, 277–294. doi:10.2307/3090215

Falconnier, L. (2009). Socioeconomic status in the treatment of depression. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 79, 148–158. doi:10.1037/a0015469

Feagin, J. R. (1975). Subordinating the poor: Welfare and American beliefs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Goodman, E., & Huang, B. (2001). Socioeconomic status, depression, and health service utilization among adolescent women. Women’s Health Issues, 11, 416–426. doi:10.1016/S1049-3867(01)00077-9

Goodman, E., Slap, G. B., & Huang, B. (2003). The public health impact of socioeconomic status on adolescent depression and obesity. American Journal of Public Health, 93, 1844–1850. doi:10.2105/AJPH.93.11.1844

Groh, C. J. (2007). Poverty, mental health, and women: Implications for psychiatric nurses in primary care settings. Journal of American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 13, 267–274. doi:10.1177/1078390307308310

Hays, D. G. (2010). Introduction to counseling outcome research and evaluation. Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation, 1, 1–7. doi:10.1177/2150137809360006

Hernandez, E. M., & Uggen, C. (2012). Institutions, politics, and mental health parity. Society and Mental Health, 2, 154–171. doi:10.1177/2156869312455436

Hill, C. E., & Lambert, M. J. (2004). Methodological issues in studying psychotherapy processes and outcome. In M. J. Lambert (Ed.), Bergin & Garfield’s handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change (5th ed., pp. 84–135). New York, NY: Wiley & Sons.

Hillerbrand, E. (1988). The relationship between socioeconomic status and counseling variables at a university counseling center. Journal of College Student Development, 29, 250–254.

Hollingshead, A. B. (2011). Four factor index of social status. Yale Journal of Sociology, 8, 21–52.

Irwin, J., LaGory, M., Richey, F., & Fitzpatrick, K. (2008). Social assets and mental distress among the homeless: Exploring the roles of social support and other forms of social capital on depression. Social Science and Medicine, 67, 1935–1943. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.09.008

Kluegel, J. R., & Smith, E. R. (1986). Beliefs about inequality: Americans’ views of what is and what ought to be. Piscataway, NJ: Aldine Transaction Publications.

Kraus, M. W., Adler, N., & Chen, T.-W. D. (2013). Is the association of subjective SES and self-rated health confounded by negative mood? An experimental approach. Health Psychology, 32, 138–145. doi:10.1037/a0027343

Krause, N., & Borawski-Clark, E. (1995). Social class differences in social support among older adults. The Gerontologist, 35, 498–508. doi:10.1093/geront/35.4.498

Lambert, M. J., Hansen, N. B., Umphress, V., Lunnen, K., Okiishi, J., & Burlingame, G. (2003). Administration and scoring manual for the Outcome Questionnaire (OQ-45.2). Orem, UT: American Professional Credentialing Services LLC.

Lang, M. (2013). The impact of mental health insurance laws on state suicide rates. Health Economics, 22, 73–88. doi:10.1002/hec.1816

Leeder, E. (1996). Speaking rich people’s words: Implications of a feminist class analysis of psychotherapy. Women & Therapy, 18(3–4), 45–57. doi:10.1300/J015v18n03_06

Leibert, T. W. (2010). Brief client self-report predictors of psychological distress: Implications for counseling outcome studies. Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation, 1(2), 50–67. doi:10.1177/2150137810373612

Liu, W. M. (2011). Social class and classism in the helping professions: Research, theory, and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Liu, W. M., Soleck, G., Hopps, J., Dunston, K., & Pickett, T., Jr. (2004). A new framework to understand social class in counseling: The social class worldview model and modern classism theory. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 32, 95–122. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1912.2004.tb00364.x

Meyer, B., Pilkonis, P. A., Krupnick, J. L., Egan, M. K., Simmens, S. J., & Sotsky, S. M. (2002). Treatment expectancies, patient alliance, and outcome: Further analyses from the National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 1051–1055.

Mickelson, K. D., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2003). Social distribution of social support: The mediating role of life events. American Journal of Community Psychology, 32, 265–281. doi:10.1023/B:AJCP.0000004747.99099.7e

Muntaner, C., Eaton, W. W., Miech, R., & O’Campo, P. (2004). Socioeconomic position and major mental disorders. Epidemiologic Reviews, 26, 53–62. doi:10.1093/epirev/mxh001

Ogles, B. M., Lambert, M. J., & Fields, S. A. (2002). Essentials of outcome assessment. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110–343, § 512 Stat. 3881–3893 (2008).

Pelletier, L. G., Tuson, K. M., & Haddad, N. K. (1997). Client motivation for therapy scale: A measure of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation for therapy. Journal of Personality Assessment, 68, 414–435. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa6802_11

Petry, N. M., Tennen, H., & Affleck, G. (2000). Stalking the elusive client variable in psychotherapy research. In C. R. Snyder & R. E. Ingram (Eds.), Handbook of psychological change: Psychotherapy processes and practices for the 21st century (pp. 88–108). New York, NY: Wiley & Sons.

Pope-Davis, D. B., & Coleman, H. L. K. (Eds.). (2001). The intersection of race, class, and gender in multicultural counseling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Pope-Davis, D. B., Ligiero, D. P., Liang, C., & Codrington, J. (2001). Fifteen years of the journal of multicultural counseling and development: A content analysis. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 29, 226–238. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1912.2001.tb00466.x

Ratts, M. J., Lewis, J. A. & Toporek, R. L. (Eds.). (2010). ACA advocacy competencies: A social justice framework for counselors. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.

Rosenbach, M. L., Lake, T. K., Williams, S. R., & Buck, J. A. (2009). Implementation of mental health parity: Lessons from California, Psychiatric Services, 60, 1589–1594. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.60.12.1589

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68

Seccombe, K., James, D., & Walters, K. B. (1998). “They think you ain’t much of nothing”: The social construction of the welfare mother. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 849–865. doi:10.2307/353629

Smith, L., Chambers, D. A., & Bratini, L. (2009). When oppression is the pathogen: The participatory development of socially just mental health practice. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 79, 159–168. doi:10.1037/a0015353

Sotsky, S. M., Glass, D. R., Shea, M. T., Pilkonis, P. A., Collins, J. F., Elkin, I., . . . Moyer, J. (1991). Patient predictors of response to psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy: Findings in the NIMH treatment of depression collaborative research program. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 997–1008.

Strohschein, L. (2005). Household income histories and child mental health trajectories. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 46, 359–375. doi:10.1177/002214650504600404

von Soest, T., Bramness, J. G., Pedersen, W., & Wichstrøm, L. (2012). The relationship between socio-economic status and antidepressant prescriptions: A longitudinal survey and register study of young adults. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 21, 87–95. doi:10.1017/S2045796011000722

Weissman, M. M., & Bothwell, S. (1976). Assessment of social adjustment by patient self-report. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 1111–1115. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1976.01770090101010

Lisa D. Hawley and Todd W. Leibert, NCC, are associate professors at Oakland University. Joel A. Lane, NCC, is an assistant professor at Portland State University. Correspondence can be addressed to Lisa D. Hawley, 435F Pawley Hall, Oakland University, Rochester, MI 48309-4401, Hawley@oakland.edu.

Small but Mighty: Perspectives of Rural Mental Health Counselors

Oct 2, 2014 | Article, Volume 4 - Issue 4

Anastasia Imig

Limited research is available on the experiences of rural mental health counselors. The following is a phenomenological study grounded in critical theory. Four practicing licensed professional counselors currently working in rural settings in the Midwest region of the United States were interviewed to elicit stories regarding rural counseling, supervision and professional development experiences. The participants’ responses included the following themes: (a) need for flexibility, (b) resource availability, (c) isolation, (d) ethical dilemmas and (e) finding meaning in one’s work. The results contribute to a small but growing body of research about rural counselors, who are often misunderstood in the context of mental health.

Keywords: rural counseling, rural mental health, ethical dilemmas, phenomenological, professional development

No common culture for the rural United States is absolute. Rural communities range according to geographic location, diversity of inhabitants, social and economic factors, problems and resources available (Bushy & Carty, 1994). As such, counselors-in-training often lack critical background information to competently and ethically serve traditionally underserved clientele (Smalley et al., 2010); in addition, counselors often lack the professionalism necessary for dealing with the profusion of unique issues in rural settings. Authors have documented studies related to rural school counseling, rural marriage and family therapy, rural mental health practitioners, rural clinical psychology, and rural healthcare and education (Bambling et al., 2007; Boyd et al., 2007; Curtin & Hargrove, 2010; Curtis, Waters, & Brindis, 2011; Ellis, Konrad, Thomas, & Morrissey, 2009; Endacott et al., 2006; Hartley, Loux, Gale, Lambert, & Yousefian, 2010; Lockhart, 2006; McCord et al., 2011; Morris, 2006; Murry, Heflinger, Suiter, & Brody, 2011; Owens, Richerson, Murphy, Jageleweski, & Rossi, 2007; Smalley et al., 2010). There is a noticeable gap in the literature, however, related to rural mental health counseling experiences.

The many definitions of rural reflect the complexity and dynamism of this elusive concept. In one scenario, population density may be the focus of the definition, whereas in other cases, geographic isolation may take precedence. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau (2013) uses the urban-rural classification system to distinguish between two types of urban areas: (a) urban communities of 50,000 or more people and (b) urban clusters of between 2,500 and 50,000 people. Rural thereby encompasses all population, housing and territory not included within an urban area (U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture uses a regional-economic concept as defined by the Office of Management and Budget, which distinguishes metropolitan areas as broad labor-market areas that include (a) central counties with one or more urbanized areas (densely populated areas with more than 50,000 people), and (b) outlying counties that are economically tied to the core counties as evidenced by labor-force commuting (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2013). Nonmetropolitan areas are therefore those outside these metropolitan areas (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2013). For the purposes of this article, rural is defined according to the Office of Management and Budget geographic isolation definition, with rural counties constituting those with fewer than 50,000 people as well as counties not economically tied to densely populated counties.

Bushy and Carty (1994) authored one of two articles specifically devoted to rural mental health counseling. The authors provided a solid foundation of rural mental health considerations, outlining the availability, accessibility and acceptability of services. The authors also described rural culture and its intersection with mental health, stating that utilization patterns are typically characterized by informal support systems versus social services. When rural residents do seek help, it is often because of crisis with higher associated incidents of depression, alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and child abuse and neglect.

Erickson (2001) defined the multiple relationships inherent in rural counseling. She explored various problems with regard to dual relationships in rural settings, as well as an ethical decision-making model for use in such instances. Through a case study, Erickson applied her decision-making model and promoted adherence to ethical guidelines in spite of multiple relationship occurrence.

The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) provides accreditation standards for licensed professional counselors. With CACREP as the industry hallmark for promoting competence through properly trained counselors, practitioners and leaders in the mental health field must take note of the lack of research and training for rural mental health counselors. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to identify the counseling experiences of licensed professional counselors working in rural settings in the Midwest region of the United States. From a critical theory perspective, this study asked the global question, “What is the experience of rural mental health counselors?” Three subquestions included the following: (a) How does the experience of working in a rural setting impact the counselor’s roles? (b) What are the contextual factors impacting counseling supervision in rural areas? and (c) What is the essence of the professional development of supervisors and supervisees providing counseling services in rural areas?

Method

Participants

Participants were recruited via network selection or “snowballing” (Creswell, 2007), in which participants and other field contacts make referrals for participation. Participants were four women who met the following research criteria: They were licensed professional counselors (LPC) currently working in the counseling field in a rural setting as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (2013). Participants lived in the Midwest region of the United States at the time of the interviews, recruited from Nebraska and South Dakota. All four women were Caucasian; three were in their mid-30s and one was in her mid-50s. Each participant’s amount of experience at her current work setting fell between 2 months and 10 years. Two participants had additional credentials in either art or equine-assisted therapy (see Table 1 for a demographic summarization of participants).

Procedure

The author and other doctoral students participating in a graduate-level qualitative research course developed 13 interview questions. Interviews were based on research questions and semistructured, allowing for both interviewees and the interviewer to spontaneously elaborate and provide further questions and information when necessary. The author conducted the interviews face-to-face with three participants; she conducted the fourth interview over the phone. The author used two digital recorders to audiotape all four interviews, which ranged in length from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. The author also conducted transcription of the audiotapes. She stored data in a locked drawer to ensure participant confidentiality, and used coding for participant identification to further protect anonymity. Prior to investigation, the author wrote an epoch (Moustakas, 1994) in which she identified her own experiences with rural culture in order to suspend previous understandings and to gain a fresh perspective. Such bracketing of the author’s experiences was used during and after the interviews and data analysis to further assess for and reduce potential bias.

Table 1

Participant Demographics

Analysis

The author first read all transcripts in order to become familiar with the data, and then read the transcripts a second time with a subsequent data analysis, following the phenomenological approach that Creswell prescribed (2007). The current author categorized individual statements into specific codes closely resembling the participants’ statements. She clustered the codes according to their subject, with similar codes combined into units of meaning in order to better manage the data, and then she labeled each unit of meaning in a theme. From key sentiments that each participant expressed, the author developed a pseudonym to reflect her unique perspectives. Using member checking (Creswell, 2007), the author restated and summarized information, and then questioned each participant to determine accuracy throughout the interview. The author emailed both transcripts of the interviews and analyzed data to the participants so each could either agree or disagree that her experiences, views and feelings were represented accurately and completely. The author additionally utilized peer and expert audit reviews (including her doctoral classmates and class instructor) to ensure credibility of the overall findings.

Results

The author identified the following themes: (a) need for flexibility, (b) resource availability, (c) isolation, (d) ethical dilemmas and (e) finding meaning in one’s work.

Need for Flexibility

 One of the dominant themes of the interviews was the need for rural mental health counselors to be flexible. All participants noted having to be flexible in order to accommodate changing schedules, multiple roles and responsibilities, working in a variety of different settings, and driving long distances. For example, The Pastor’s Wife explained her struggle with flexibility when she is in a town only once a week: “Scheduling is hard. . . . And so if a kid can only be seen after school . . . at a certain time . . . I’m only in [town] one day a week. That’s a challenge.”

Super Nanny explained driving as part of rural life: “I mean, where I grew up, you just have to drive everywhere. To get groceries, to get a job, you have to drive at least half an hour.” For this participant, it was therefore not challenging to commute: “It’s about an hour drive from my home to visit with my supervisor.” Putting Out Fires, on the other hand, described struggles with driving: “The hardest part for me is the drive. I drive 45 minutes one way. I just hate that. For me, that’s the most frustrating.” The Pastor’s Wife had a different problem with driving: “The thing that gets me . . . is cost. . . . It costs a lot for travel. . . . With budget cuts, they cut back on that kind of stuff. So, to get creative, [I] carpool to different trainings.”

To help close the distance typically found in rural areas, participants met with clientele in a variety of untraditional settings to lessen the physical gap between counselors’ offices and clients’ homes. Settings included town libraries, churches, schools and funeral homes. Putting Out Fires candidly remarked, “I even go to their work. It’s approved by their boss that I meet them. I do that every week.” Even in her office space located in a church, All Things Rural must be flexible with the comings and goings of congregation members.

We’re very respectful of the church people and they are very respectful of us. If they know we have something going on, they stay away. Like [if] we have someone in the family room, they’ll go somewhere else. It’s wonderful.

In addition to juggling different settings, participants juggled many roles in their positions as well. Whether it was the role of teacher, case manager, secretary, grant writer, administrator, supervisor or advocate, all four participants acknowledged that an essential part of being a rural counselor entailed wearing many hats. All Things Rural commented, “So, we do everything: phones, insurance, make our own appointments, case notes. We make our own grants. It is very all encompassing.” Similarly, Putting Out Fires admitted, “I do trainings with the pre-natal classes. . . . I do a lot of community activities. I do a lot of prevention. [When] they have community activities, like National AIDS Awareness Day, we’ll have a booth.” Of course, Super Nanny described her teaching responsibilities accordingly: “I do a lot of Super Nanny type stuff . . . a lot of hands on, experiential, teaching type stuff. Like taking advantage of teachable moments. So I’m teaching.”

Flexibility also resulted in fewer people doing more jobs in the community as a whole. For example, doubling of other roles also occurred. All Things Rural explained, “The church secretary also double-times as our treasurer.” Putting Out Fires echoed a similar example: “They were without a social worker for a while. So they had a nurse trying.” And if roles are not filled, then it is the community that must go without.

Resources

Another dominant theme was resources in rural communities. All Things Rural described the affordability of counseling for community members: “We can see people who for any reason aren’t having their mental health or counseling needs met, we never refuse anyone for inability to pay.” Putting Out Fires mentioned the availability of transportation for clients: “I really do not have very many no-shows because we provide transportation. So we even go to the houses and pick them up.” For those individuals initiating services, culturally diverse staff is available, according to Super Nanny:

At the agency that I work, they have at least two licensed therapists that, one of them is actually from Somalia and the other one is kind of like an expert in that area . . . really knows a lot of the culture and all that stuff. . . . I’m impressed with that in where I’m working now. There’s also a large Hispanic culture and at least half of all the staff, the family service workers, as well as the therapists, are bilingual.

Despite being in rural locations, participants had access to other professionals and trainings. One of the benefits of working for an American Indian/Native Alaska tribe, confided Putting Out Fires, was that “there’s lots of funds. When it comes to CEUs [continuing education units], trainings, I am very spoiled. They pay for all of that. That’s a huge benefit. It’s huge.” Although the other participants did not have comparable financial backing for professional development, The Pastor’s Wife commented on local trainings: “I think that there are some local things that are available. There’s been some . . . workshops at the hospital . . . which has been nice. And they’re free. So that’s good.” All Things Rural similarly described a local conference: “Here in [town] there is an annual Mental Wellness Conference.”

All four participants identified local availability for interacting with other rural mental health counselors. Whether through staff meetings, informal office drop-ins or contact with other area personnel, all have been able to find resources nearby. All Things Rural stated, “I always have people I can talk to.” Super Nanny described a similar experience: “And then . . . if I don’t know about something, I access the person that does within the agency.” Furthermore, the Internet has proven helpful for participants when asking questions over e-mail, finding information or materials online, or utilizing telesupervision. Putting Out Fires explained, “The big thing now is telesupervision. And even using Skype. I actually went to a seminar at the last art therapy conference, and it was all about telesupervision. Because I even had supervised somebody through Skype.”

On the other hand, participants also had experiences where wait lists formed due to high need and not enough local professional staff available. The Pastor’s Wife said, “I’m the only QMHP [qualified mental health professional] in [town] on Fridays.” Putting Out Fires also complained about the lack of professionally qualified area staff: “Their CPS [Child Protective Services] workers don’t have to have a college education. . . . I’m not sure what their requirements are. So they may not necessarily even be trained.”

Because there are few professionals serving a small population, there is often a lack of clinician anonymity. Super Nanny described the challenge of maintaining a private life while out in public: “Is it somebody I’m working with? Is it somebody I’m going to work with possibly in the future? . . . What are they seeing? What opinions are they forming?” Super Nanny expressed similar concern: “It’s just [that you’re] always having to represent yourself in a professional manner whether you’re at work or not at work.” All Things Rural summarized, “You run into your clients more in a rural setting than you would otherwise.”

Isolation

Not surprisingly, another aspect of being a rural counselor involved experiences with wide, open spaces. The Pastor’s Wife elaborated on the complications as a result of unavailable cell signals:

If I have a question, or something, and I need to call back, at times there’s trouble with reception. . . . Like down in [town] . . . you have to go to . . . the top of this hill to get cell reception. . . . In somebody’s house, there’s no cell reception.

Super Nanny struggled with a different piece:

I miss the office interaction, though. That’s where you do a lot of the collaborating. A lot of consultation . . . a lot of ideas are generated. “I’m struggling with a client, what do you do?” Just, you know, passing in the hall. Or, when you have a 10-minute break and you’re in someone else’s office. “I’ve got a quick question for you. I’m struggling with . . . What advice do you have?” I miss that.

Ethical Dilemmas

Dual relationships abound in rural communities. Putting Out Fires explained, “It’s so small in the community, you become friends, then . . . you see their kid.” She further detailed, “And we don’t have an EAP [Employee Assistance] program. So we’ve seen co-workers. That’s really hard.” The Pastor’s Wife added, “And also I see a few of the kids of staff, of my co-workers. . . . I haven’t had any issues, but it’s . . . a whole different situation I guess. Because you’re coworkers and a client.” The Pastor’s Wife also explained the intersection of her personal and professional lives:

Well, I’ve run into some difficulties with my husband being a pastor at the church. . . . I’ve had some clients that have also been parishioners, and so with the confidentiality, I can’t talk to my husband about things. But he also has confidentiality about things, being a pastor. And he can’t talk to me about things. But there have been times that I’ve been on-call, and he has gotten a call from a parishioner, that he has had to encourage to call the crisis line, then I answer the crisis line. And it’s just . . . it hasn’t caused any problems, but the uncomfortableness [sic] is there. And, so that has been difficult at times.

In addition to dual relationships, participants cited concerns regarding other rural professionals’ multicultural competency. The Pastor’s Wife described several colleagues’ biases:

I know that there is natural stereotypes, of you know, this kid’s a Native American kid versus a White kid. So the Native American kid is gonna be, you know, have more problem behaviors. I think there’s stereotypes for sure.

Putting Out Fires had a similar experience: “The thing that is really frustrating . . . there are teachers in the schools that are really racist.” In addition to advocating for clients while on the job, she stresses the importance of doing so while interacting with family and friends. Putting Out Fires explains, “Oh, I say stuff” to combat stereotypes and injustices.

Finding Meaning in One’s Work

In spite of the obstacles of rural mental health counseling, all four participants identified sources of job satisfaction. Putting Out Fires remarked about her American Indian clients, “They’re so resilient. And you know, they’re strong. They adapt to the circumstances.” The Pastor’s Wife reflected on her multiple responsibilities by saying, “There’s some benefits in working in rural areas, too. I think . . . it can be more rewarding because you feel you’re doing more. You have to.” Super Nanny was proud to be giving back to her childhood community: “I feel that it’s very rewarding to work in the communities . . . that I grew up in and to be able to actually help the people I work with.” Super Nanny also added the following:

And within small communities, the chances that I’m going to run into them in the future are very high. . . . And I have had that experience where I do run into people from the past and I see them doing very well . . . to me [this] is very rewarding.

All Things Rural stated, “We have a wonderful staff and we’re very happy.” To reiterate, she said, “I love my work. I love my work.” All Things Rural summarized her rural mental health counseling experiences by saying, “We are small, but mighty.”

Discussion

This study demonstrates many aspects of rural mental health counseling and answers the research question related to rural counselors’ various roles and supervision and professional development experiences. Given the extra roles that participants take on and the multiple settings in which they practice, the findings of this study are similar to those of Bushy and Carty (1994). This study further highlights the ambiguous nature of availability and accessibility of rural mental health resources. In some instances, participants described ample collegial accessibility. Putting Out Fires said, “I feel supervision-wise, I get a lot of good support.” All Things Rural concurred: “I know a lot of my colleagues in the area. And that’s helpful.” In other instances, participants bemoaned a lack of resources. Putting Out Fires replied, “You have to work your butt off. We have scraped. We have scraped.” Super Nanny responded, “They’re there. You just have to look for them.” With such contradictions occurring within the context of the four interviews, the complexity of rural mental health counseling is apparent. Hard work is expected. Putting Out Fires explained, “If you’re going to be successful, you’re going to have to work at it.”

By using a qualitative design, the author was able to gain insight into the nature of rural mental health counseling experiences that she could not study easily through quantitative methods. Allowing participants to speak candidly about their experiences in a semistructured interview format provided an increased understanding of rural mental health counseling experiences, supervision and professional development. The participants also represented a variety of service venues, including outpatient services on an American Indian reservation.

One limitation of the study relates to the questionable reliability of self-reports. Some participants may have felt political or internal pressure to portray their geographic location or job in a positive light. The author’s presence during data collection may similarly have impacted participants’ responses. An obvious limitation is the narrow demographic representation and sample size. Although the participants represented a variety of community mental health settings, all the participants were Caucasian females. Having more substantive demographic differences (e.g., age, race, gender, years in the field) and a larger sample size could have further enriched the findings.

Implications for Clinical Practice, Counselor Education and Future Research

It remains clear that certain personal qualities and professional skills can lead to increased rural mental health job satisfaction and success. For example, knowing how to adapt to ever-changing situations, be they role or setting related, is important. Whether being prepared to help a community sandbag for an approaching flood, anticipating loss of cell phone reception or writing one’s own grants, flexibility becomes key. As All Things Rural said, “You just have to be very versatile.”

The current study reinforced findings from previous rural mental health research. Working in isolation is a hard truth for rural mental health counselors (Curtin & Hargrove, 2010). All Things Rural said, “Smaller communities . . . don’t have services.” The Pastor’s Wife expanded on the dilemma: “And the resources out there are even . . . less than here, so it was really important to have those credentials.” Obtaining additional credentials may not only help advance one’s career goals, but in rural mental health counseling, it can become a function of survival.

Smalley et al. (2010) further suggested anticipation of ethical dilemmas. Participants in this study recognized the coping skills necessary for dealing with concerns surrounding confidentiality, dual relationships and discrimination. Super Nanny used deflection and planned ignoring. All Things Rural used humor. Putting Out Fires and The Pastor’s Wife used limit setting. While Curtin and Hargrove (2010) promoted overall administrative and supervisory support for rural mental health professionals, it is the current author’s belief that such encouragement can prove additionally important regarding ethical concerns. Furthermore, Endacott et al. (2006) advocated that licensing boards differentiate between acceptable and unacceptable boundary crossings for rural mental health counselors and develop corresponding guidelines for protection when such occurrences happen.

Bushy and Carty (1994) found limited training regarding rural mental health practice. Inevitably, counseling training programs have an urban orientation toward the counseling profession (Bushy & Carty, 1994). Ellis et al. (2009) recommend specialized training to meet the unique needs of rural mental health counselors. Training areas of particular importance include telesupervision, social justice advocacy, and managing inevitable dual relationships and breaches in confidentiality.

In light of this study’s findings, optimism remains for this growing area of mental health counseling. All four participants were able to glean meaning despite extra responsibilities, isolation, ethical hardships and unavailable resources. It is clear these four rural mental health counselors are able to transcend tremendous obstacles. Indeed, “small but mighty” is a fitting description for this specialized group of mental health professionals.

References

Bambling, M., Kavanagh, D., Lewis, G., King, R., King, D., Sturk, H., . . . Bartlett, H. (2007). Challenges faced by general practitioners and allied mental health services in providing mental health services in rural Queensland. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 15, 126–130. doi:10.1111/j.1440-1584.2007.00866.x

Boyd, C., Francis, K., Aisbett, D., Newnham, K., Sewell, J., Dawes, G., & Nurse, S. (2007). Australian rural adolescents’ experiences of accessing psychological help for a mental health problem. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 15, 196–200. doi:10.1111/j.1440-1584.2007.00884.x

Bushy, A., & Carty, L. (1994). Rural practice? Considerations for counsellors with clients who live there. Guidance & Counseling, 9(5), 16–25.

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Curtin, L., & Hargrove, D. S. (2010). Opportunities and challenges of rural practice: Managing self amid ambiguity. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66, 549–561. doi:10.1002/jclp.20687

Curtis, A. C., Waters, C. M., & Brindis, C. (2011). Rural adolescent health: The importance of prevention services in the rural community. The Journal of Rural Health, 27, 60–71. doi:10.1111/j.1748-0361.2010.00319.x

Ellis, A. R., Konrad, T. R., Thomas, K. C., & Morrissey, J. P. (2009). County-level estimates of mental health professional supply in the United States. Psychiatric Services, 60, 1315–1322. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.60.10.1315.

Endacott, R., Wood, A., Judd, F., Hulbert, C., Thomas, B., & Grigg, M. (2006). Impact and management of dual relationships in metropolitan, regional and rural mental health practice. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 40, 987–994.

Erickson, S. H. (2001). Multiple relationships in rural counseling. The Family Journal, 9, 302–304. doi:10.1177/1066480701093010

Hartley, D., Loux, S., Gale, J., Lambert, D., & Yousefian, A. (2010). Characteristics of inpatient psychiatric units in small rural hospitals. Psychiatric Services, 61, 620–623. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.61.6.620.

Lockhart, C. (2006). Collaboration and referral practices of general practitioners and community mental health workers in rural and remote Australia. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 14, 29–32. doi:10.1111/j.1440-1584.2006.00746.x

McCord, C. E., Elliott, T. R., Wendel, M. L., Brossart, D. F., Cano, M. A., Gonzalez, G. E., & Burdine, J. N. (2011). Community capacity and teleconference counseling in rural Texas.  Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 42, 521–527. doi:10.1037/a0025296

Morris, J. (2006). Rural marriage and family therapists: A pilot study. Contemporary Family Therapy, 28, 53–60. doi:10.1007/s10591-006-9694-3

Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Murry, V. M., Heflinger, C. A., Suiter, S. V., & Brody, G. H. (2011). Examining perceptions about mental health care and help-seeking among rural African American families of adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 40, 1118–1131. doi:10.1007/s10964-010-9627-1

Owens, J. S., Richerson, L., Murphy, C. E., Jageleweski, A., & Rossi, L. (2007). The parent perspective: Informing the cultural sensitivity of parenting programs in rural communities. Child & Youth Care Forum, 36, 179–194. doi:10.1007/s10566-007-9041-3

Smalley, K. B., Yancey, C. T., Warren, J. C., Naufel, K., Ryan, R., & Pugh, J. L. (2010). Rural mental health and psychological treatment: A review for practitioners. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66, 479–489. doi:10.1002/jclp.20688

U.S. Census Bureau. (2013). 2010 Census urban and rural classification and urban area criteria. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/geo/reference/ua/urban-rural-2010.html

U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2013). Rural classifications. Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/rural-classifications/what-is-rural.aspx#.U5yg6hYrfdk

Anastasia Imig is a doctoral candidate at the University of South Dakota. Correspondence can be addressed to University of South Dakota, Room #210 Delzell, 414 E. Clark St., Vermillion, SD 57069, anastasi.imig@usd.edu.

Helping Military Parents Cope

Sep 12, 2014 | Article, Volume 1 - Issue 1

Lynn K. Hall

Increasingly, mental health professionals are providing counseling services to military families. Military parents often struggle with child-rearing issues and experience difficulty meeting the fundamental needs for trust and safety among their children because they are consumed with stress and their own needs. Within this article, military family dynamics are discussed and parenting styles, namely coercive, pampering or permissive and respectful leadership, are explored. The authors conclude by highlighting counseling interventions that
may be effective for working with military parents and families.

Keywords: military parents, family dynamics, child-rearing, safety, counseling interventions

In 1994, Donaldson-Pressman and Pressman began tracking families in their practice who had many of the dynamics of alcoholic or abusive families, but had no history of alcohol abuse, incest, physical abuse, emotional neglect or physical absence. The one consistent characteristic of those families was similar to many military families that I worked with, which was that “the needs of the parent system took precedence over the needs of the children” (Donaldson-Pressman & Pressman, 1994, p. 4). It is because of this dynamic that I chose to use the term “parent-focused families” when writing about parenting issues in the book, Counseling Military Families: What Mental Health Professionals Need to Know (Hall, 2008). Developmentally, many military parents who are struggling with child-rearing issues have difficulty meeting the fundamental needs for trust and safety for their children because they are consumed with their own needs (Hall, 2008). One of the major challenges of military families is learning how to operate within the larger external system of the military without complaint or unreasonable expectations.

Wertsch (1991) described this dynamic as the stoicism of the military, or the need to be ready, maintain the face of a healthy family, and do what is expected without showing discontent or dissatisfaction. A second important dynamic is secrecy, or not allowing what happens in the family to impact the military parent’s career. The third dynamic, denial, also is present in most military families as they make numerous transitions and experience issues like the deployment of the service member (Wertsch, 1991). In order to survive, the non-military parent and children often deny the emotional aspect of these transitions, as well as more “normal” developmental transitions. In many parent-focused military families, particularly when there is a child who is acting out or in other ways exhibiting behavior problems, these three dynamics often lead to other characteristics (Hall, 2008) such as:

1. The belief that the child is the problem, rather than the child may have a problem.
2. The child is given a label, such as lazy or stupid, rather than understanding that the behavior may be the result of a mental health, developmental or learning problem.
3. Children sometimes learn early that, if expressed, their feelings may make things worse so that detaching emotionally becomes quite functional.
4. Once they discover that their feelings will not be validated, they may learn to distrust their own judgments and feelings.
5. The child may take on the responsibility of meeting the emotional and sometimes physical needs of the parents.
6. If either parent is inconsistently emotionally available, children may have difficulty letting down the barriers required for intimacy later in life (Hall, 2008; Donaldson-Pressman & Pressman, 1994).

These characteristics, when played out in military families, are a reflection of the secrecy, stoicism and denial often demanded of these families. Instead of providing a supportive, nurturing, and reality-based mirror, the parents may present a mirror that only reflects their needs, resulting in children who grow up feeling defective (Hall, 2008). “When one is raised unable to trust in the stability, safety, and equity of one’s world, one is raised to distrust one’s own feelings, perceptions, and worth” (Donaldson-Pressman & Pressman, 1994, p.18).

When we look at the demographics of military families, we see that most military dependent children are born to very young couples who have been removed from their extended support system or other supportive older adults on whom they can rely. For almost all military children, their physical and psychological needs are indeed met during childhood; however, when children begin to assert themselves and/or make emotional demands, which often begins in early to middle adolescence, the parental system may be unable to tend to the children’s needs. Parents who are under a great deal of stress and perhaps faced with a high level of uncertainty around issues like multiple deployments may find themselves resentful or threatened by the needs of the children. The ability to understand how some families in the military are organized, not just because of who the parents are but, more importantly, who the parents are in the midst of the demands of the “warrior fortress” in which they live, is essential in working with these families (Hall, 2008).

Parenting in a Democratic Society

One counselor explained that military couples are often not faced with the typical life decisions or choices of civilian couples, such as buying a home or relocating because of an available career opportunity (Hall, 2008). At the same time, military couples and families are required to relate to and often spend a great many years living in our mostly democratic American world. This counselor often finds it necessary to point out to parents of adolescents that, while the parents may have adjusted well to living in the authoritarian military structure, rebellious teens often see the world in a different way. A typical military parental response to a rebelling teen is to tighten the rules, becoming more vigilant and rigid. This is often the result of the fear of losing control or their place as the head of the household. “Children of the military, whether they live on base or not, live, at least part of their life, in a democratic society; they go to democratic schools and their parents are serving the mission of defending a democratic nation. It is understandable, then, how those who face strictly authoritarian parenting or home life might be confused and perhaps become rebellious” (Hall, 2008, p. 119).

McKay and Maybell (2004) write about the democratic revolution which they define as an “upheaval in all of our social institutions: government, education, the workplace, race relationships, gender relationships and families” (p. 64). As these authors point out, during the last few decades most social institutions and relationships in the United States have operated from an equality identity that values attitudes of equal values and respect. These societal changes require new attitudes toward oneself and others, as well as a new set of knowledge and skills (Hall, 2008; McKay & Maybell, 2004). The military, on the other hand, has not changed to an egalitarian institution: it never will because it could not survive. But, regardless of how the military organizes itself and its members, the military family still lives, at least to some degree, in a democratic society. This means the individual members of the family will often struggle as they go back and forth between the authoritarian world of the military and the democratic world in which they both come from and continue to be a part (Hall, 2008).

While McKay and Maybell (2004) were addressing the conflict in the greater society over the last few decades, their description of the “tension, conflict, anger, and even violence . . . as we move from the old autocratic tradition to a new democratic one” (p. 65) clearly describes the ongoing challenge for military parents. These are valuable insights when understanding the children and the families of the military, many of whom may view the world outside of the military quite appealing and then begin to rebel against the rigid structure they are forced to live within. This theoretical framework can be a useful tool for counselors in helping families understand the need to move from the external often rigid superior/inferior military structure to a more egalitarian structure in the home that encourages and respects each individual in the family but still maintains the hierarchical need for parental control that is necessary for all functioning families (Hall, 2008).

Helping parents to assess their current parenting style, and then to consider how to modify their parenting practices from patterns that are discouraging for their children to those that are encouraging, can be extremely valuable for family growth and development. Whether this is done in a parent training environment or a family counseling setting, helping parents adjust their style will directly impact their children’s behavior. McKay and Maybell (2004) describe three of the most common parenting styles: the coercive parenting style, the pampering or permissive parenting style and the respectful leadership style. Because these authors have years of Adlerian training and writing experience, the reader will recognize that these parenting styles correspond to previous parenting literature written by Adlerian writers. The first two often discourage the healthy development of children; the third is not only respectful, but can be both encouraging and empowering (Hall, 2008).

Coercive Parenting

The coercive parenting style is often the style used to control children for their own good and is often the style of parenting used in parent-focused families, as well as the families of very young parents who have little family support (McKay & Maybell, 2004). It is often the style we find in military parents with children who are rebelling or acting out. The parents maintain control by giving orders, setting rules, making demands, rewarding obedient behavior, and punishing bad deeds (Hall, 2008). McKay and Maybell call this model limits without freedom. These parents almost always have good intentions and want to make sure their children avoid many of life’s mistakes; their goal is simply to teach their children the right way before they get hurt. The need for children to accommodate a subordinate identity may work for a while, at least when the children are young. However, when children want to be acknowledged for their individuality or want to be respected as an individual, this style can result in conflict and power struggles (Hall, 2008). “Kids tend to become experts at not doing what their parents want them to do and doing exactly what their parents don’t want” (McKay & Maybell, 2004, p.71). The results of coercive parenting are often kids who either need to get even, resulting in a constant war of revenge, or kids who submit to the coercion and learn to rely only on those in power to make their decisions (Hall, 2008), either of which can be destructive to the healthy development of children.

Pampering or Permissive Parenting

The permissive parenting style (McKay & Maybell, 2004) is used by parents whose goal is to produce children who are always comfortable and happy, by either letting them do whatever they please or by doing everything for them. This parenting style is referred to as freedom without limits and is often the style that current popular literature calls helicopter parenting. These children often end up considering themselves to be the prince or princess and their parents their servants. They can develop a “strong sense of ego-esteem with little true self- or people-esteem” (McKay & Maybell, 2004, p.72). Often they have under-developed social skills and can become too dependent on others. Parents eventually, however, may resent how much they are doing for their children, leading to conflict and power struggles. With so few limits, children believe they not only can do anything they want, but believe they should be allowed to do anything they want, leading to a sense of entitlement along with a lack of internal self-discipline or self-responsibility (Hall, 2008).

These first two parenting styles can even exist in the same family, where one parent is the authoritarian (in a military family, usually the military parent) and the other is the permissive parent who lessens the rules of the authoritarian parent, particularly when that parent is absent. School behavior often worsens upon the return of the military parent from deployment. If asked, young people will say that everything was fine at home while the service member parent was gone, but now that the parent has returned and started cracking the whip, the teens often turn to rebellion or other inappropriate behaviors (Hall, 2008).

Respectful Leadership

The third parenting style is the only encouraging style for children; it is the style of respectful leadership (McKay & Maybell, 2004), or freedom within limits. The parents value the child as an individual and value themselves as leaders of the family through the guiding principle of mutual respect in all parent-child interaction. Giving choices is the main discipline approach with the goal of building on individual strengths, accentuating the positive, promoting responsibility, and instilling confidence in the children (Hall, 2008). This parenting style, in both the civilian and military worlds, can help build respectful, responsible children. Emphasizing that parents are not giving up their leadership role in order to parent their children is especially important in military families. Combining that with the concept of “respect” makes sense within the military culture.

A counselor told of an Army officer who brought his 16-year-old daughter to counseling because she was acting out. He insisted that she come home at her curfew time and she quit hanging out with the boys he disapproved. She responded with a typical angry look that caused Dad to come unglued. The counselor asked Dad what his biggest fear was for his daughter, thinking that he would be worried about her becoming pregnant, not finishing school, or any of a number of other possible responses. After thinking and, for the first time, with tears in his eyes, Dad said that she might leave him like her mother did. The spirit of counseling changed at that point. With a look of complete astonishment on the daughter’s face, she started crying and told her dad that she thought he wanted her to leave because he couldn’t face her after her mom left. The counselor was able to help Dad see that setting rigid rules that had to be tightened up every time they were broken, might not work as the two of them forged a new relationship and he allowed her to mature into a responsible young woman. Helping him find ways to include her in setting limits and in household decisions, as it was now just the two of them, went a long way in repairing their relationship, as well as in empowering her to make healthy decisions in other parts of her life.

Working with Parents

Helping parents understand how their parenting style impacts child development can often be a counselor’s most valuable teaching tool. While it sounds easy, it is not; parents need guidance and direction on how to give choices, when to give choices, and how to be creative in choosing appropriate consequences. Parents have to learn to start small, start young (when possible), and be willing to make mistakes. The Adlerian principle of the courage to be imperfect also must be a part of parent education. Parents all want the best for their children; helping them promote responsibility and confidence by making adjustments in their parenting style can help them reach these goals. As early as 1984, Rodriguez wrote that in a rank-privileged and -oriented social system like the military, this mix of caste formation and egalitarianism may create a difficult dichotomy, particularly for children and adolescents struggling for their identity. This dichotomy can be exacerbated by the parent-focused nature of the military when parents are concerned about how their child’s misbehavior might affect the parent’s status in the military. Children become sensitive to this parental anxiety and the anger that follows when they break community rules or military social norms. In some military communities, particularly those that are isolated and where rules are strongly enforced, children have little room to make mistakes or test the limits of authority in a normal, developmental manner, without impacting the family status or the military parent’s career (Hall, 2008).

It is important to point out that not all military families struggle with these issues; the great majority carry out their parenting duties extremely well and raise healthy children, often in the midst of difficult situations. Jeffreys and Leitzel’s (2000) study noted that a caring relationship and low family stress is associated with resiliency. If children have an emotionally supportive relationship with their parents, they are more likely to demonstrate high levels of self-esteem and healthy psychological development. Their study (Jeffreys & Leitzel, 2000) of military families suggests that family climate promotes the participation in family decision-making and is positive for adolescent identity development. Effective communication patterns facilitate family interaction and are associated with social competence. This finding is reflected in McKay & Maybell’s (2004) respectful leadership style of parenting and can help mental health counselors focus their work on helping military parents learn the parenting skills necessary to reach their goals of having competent, healthy and responsible children, as well as coping with the sometimes overwhelming challenges they face while serving in the military.

References

Donaldson-Pressman, S., & Pressman, R. M. (1994). The narcissistic family: Diagnosis and treatment. San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass.
Hall, L. K. (2008). Counseling military families: What mental health professionals need to know. New York, NY:
Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group.
Jeffreys, D. J., & Leitzel, J. D. (2000). The strengths and vulnerabilities of adolescents in military families. In J. A. Martin, L. N. Rosen, & L. R. Sparacino, (Eds.). The military family: A practice guide for human service providers (pp. 225–240). Westport, CT: Praeger.
McKay, G. D., & Maybell, S. A. (2004). Calming the family story: Anger management for Moms, Dads, and all the kids. Atascadero, CA: Impact.
Rodriguez, A. R. (1984). Special treatment needs of children of military families. In F. W. Kaslow & R. I. Ridenour (Eds.) The military family: Dynamics and treatment (pp. 46–72). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Wertsch, M. E. (1991). Military brats: Legacies of childhood inside the fortress. New York, NY: Harmony Books.

Lynn K. Hall, NCC is Dean of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Phoenix. Correspondence can be addressed to Lynn K. Hall, College of Social Sciences, University of Phoenix, 4605 E. Elwood St., Phoenix, AZ 85040, lynn.hall@phoenix.edu.