Willingness to Seek Help as a Function of Self-Disclosure and Problem Severity

In this study the authors examined the effects of problem severity, amount of self-disclosure, and self-disclosure flexibility on willingness to seek help for a problem. The participants were 101 midwestern university students enrolled in an introductory psychology course who had not had previous counseling experience. The participants completed the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire (SDQ), the Chelune Self-Disclosure Situations Survey (SDSS), and responded to questions after reading a scenario depicting a personal problem of either high or low severity. The results indicated that the factors that predicted the greatest amount of variance in willingness to seek help were the interaction of problem severity with willingness to self-disclose to a counselor, followed by problem severity; no gender differences were found. Implications for counseling and further research are discussed.     

Interpretation style and reactance in counselor's social influence.

This study compared two different interpretation styles (tentative and absolute), two levels of subjects' reactance (high and low), and gender on the counselor's social influence, willingness to see the counselor, willingness to help, ability to help, and subjects' anger. No significant main effects or interaction were found for the counselor's social influence, but men in contrast to women perceived the counselor as more willing to help and indicated that they were more willing to see the portrayed counselor. Highly reactant subjects were more willing to see the counselor when absolute interpretations were used; they also thought the counselor was more willing to help when absolute interpretations were used, whereas low reactant subjects thought the counselor was more willing to help when tentative interpretations were used. Mixed results were found for subjects' anger.     

Counselor Empathy; Religiosity; and Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Perspectives

Values-based conflicts, such as between counselor religiosity and ability to work with lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) clients, can present a challenge for counselors and trainees who seek to provide ethical and competent care. Because empathy can facilitate understanding a client's frame of reference, the authors examined the relationships between counselor religiosity, empathy, and LGB perspectives, as well as the potential mediating effects of empathy on values conflicts. The authors discuss implications for counselor education and practice.     

An evaluation of the effectiveness of a telephone counseling center

Three-thousand questionnaires were distributed to students on campus to identify a sample of actual telephone counseling center users and their ratings of the effectiveness of the help received and of the counselor. Ratings of help received and impact of counseling on life as it is today were considered for sex of caller and counselor across type of problem. A sample of 66 actual callers was identified who had used the service for personal problems at least once. Of male callers, 67% reported that telephone counseling helped at least somewhat, while 80% of female callers reported favorable results of telephone counseling. Female callers who talked with male counselors reported a significantly greater impact on their life than did the callers in any other caller/counselor sex interaction. Only one average rating of counseling effectiveness by problem type fell below the neutral rating. Results are presented as evidence for the effectiveness of paraprofessional counselors.     

Mothers’ and Fathers’ Reluctance to Seek Psychological Help for Their Children

We investigated the gap between parents’ willingness to seek help for their children and their willingness to refer other parents to help, and the relationship of this gap to gender. Two hundred and eleven parent couples with elementary-school children reported their willingness to seek help from professional and informal sources for a hypothetical problem with their child, and their willingness to refer a friend’s child with an identical problem to similar help. Attitudes toward help seeking and parental behaviors were also measured. Findings revealed that parents were more willing to refer a friend’s child to professional help than they were to seek such help for their own child, although no gap was found regarding informal help. No gender differences were found regarding willingness to seek help or to refer another, although gender was related to variables that predicted help seeking.     

Does Religion Suppress,Socialize, Soothe,or Support? Exploring Religiosity's Influence on Crime

A negative association between religiosity and crime is commonly documented in the United States and other Western contexts. In this study, we examine associations between religiosity and criminal probability among randomly selected survey respondents in a non‐Western Christian context (Lviv, Ukraine) and a non‐Western Islamic context (Dhaka, Bangladesh). In addition, we explore whether religiosity is associated in these contexts with various theoretical mechanisms identified in prior research, including self‐control, social control, moral beliefs, negative emotions, and social support. Results confirm that religiosity is negatively correlated with projected criminal probability in non‐Western contexts as well as among both Christian and Muslim respondents. Furthermore, net of social and demographic characteristics, religiosity appears to indirectly influence crime through moral beliefs and, to a lesser extent, through self‐control and informal social control.     

The Willingness of Military Members to Seek Help: The Role of Social Involvement and Social Responsibility

Anchored in the social organization theory of action and change, we use data from a large sample of active‐duty Air Force members to examine the direct and indirect influence of social involvement and social responsibility on willingness to seek help in times of need via trust in formal systems and informal supports. Group comparisons are conducted between junior male, junior female, senior male, and senior female service members. The key mediational path in the model for all groups is the connection between social involvement and willingness to seek help via trust in formal systems. These results can inform both unit‐ and community‐level interventions intended to increase the likelihood that active‐duty AF members will seek help in times of need.     

Counseling Expectations Among Mexican American College Students: The Role of Counselor Ethnicity

Sixty‐five Mexican American undergraduates completed a battery of tests, including the Expectations About Counseling‐Brief Form B and the Marlowe‐Crown Social Desirability Scale‐Form XX. Statistical analyses showed significant counselor ethnicity and participant gender main and interaction effects on EAC‐B ratings related to client attitudes and behaviors, counselor attitudes and behaviors, counselor characteristics, and counseling process.     

Religion in Domestic Violence Prevention PSAs: The Role of Religiosity in Motivating Christian Bystanders to Intervene

Domestic violence is an ongoing health issue around the world, propelling individuals and organizations to seek out new and innovative ways to mitigate its widespread reach. Focusing on the potential of religion to positively impact messaging, the current study examines how Christian symbolism might be used to encourage intervention behavior using public service announcements (PSAs). Using a between‐subjects design of Christian Americans as the respondent pool, a religious symbol versus a control ad was utilized. Levels of religiosity were also measured and factors impacting the construct assessed. Findings revealed religiosity, the importance of religion in one's life, was the underlying motivator for highly religious people to act rather than a religious cue. Within religiosity, the perceived strength of faith to one's identity held greater value than church attendance and frequency of prayer. Theoretical implications are discussed as well as insights for people working in public service messaging.     

Help-seeking atititudes among Israeli adolescents

This study investigated the willingness of Israeli adolescents to seek help for emotional and health problems, and their preference for various helping agents. Nearly fifteen hundred students in grades 7-12 participated in a comprehensive survey of attitudes, health status, and concerns, and the data were analyzed. Gender and age were identified as factors associated with help-seeking attitudes. Females reported a higher level of distress and greater willingness to seek help than did males. Younger adolescents tended to state that they would turn to parents for help, whereas older adolescents increasingly preferred peers. In general, the adolescents preferred to seek help from family and peers for emotional and social problems, rather than turning to professionals. Adolescents in grades 9-10 reported the highest level of distress and were least willing to seek help for interpersonal problems and depressed mood. Overall, level of distress was not directly related to willingness to seek help. In subgroups of depressed and suicidal adolescents, an inverse relationship was found between willingness to seek help and levels of depression and suicidal ideation. Recommendations for health care services and counseling programs are discussed.     

College Students' Perceptions of a Psychotherapist's Treatment of a Religious Issue: Partial Replication and Extension

A study of the influence of a counselor's treatment of a client's religious values, observers' religiosity, and their interaction on observers' perceptions of counseling (Morrow, Worthington, & McCullough, 1992) was partially replicated and extended. Religious beliefs were differentiated from religious values as determinants of observers' perceptions of counseling. Student observers (N = 148) viewed one of two videotaped counseling interactions in which a counselor either supported or challenged a client's religious values. Dividing observers into high and low levels of Christian belief did not result in their perceiving religiously supportive or challenging counseling differently. Dividing observers into high and low levels of religious values produced consistent differences in how they perceived religiously supportive and challenging counseling. Findings supported the theory that people with strong religious values perceive counseling differently than people with weaker religious values.     

The Effects of Religiosity on Preferences and Expectations for Marital Therapy Among Married Christians

Highly religious couples constitute a substantial portion of marital therapy clients in the U.S. Married Christian individuals ( N = 211) completed a survey of demographics and religiosity (religious values and Christian beliefs). They rated preferences and expectations for one of four marital therapy situations: Christian therapist using Christian practices (e.g., prayer or reference to Scripture), Christian therapist using psychological practices only, non-Christian therapist willing to use Christian practices, and non-Christian therapist using psychological practices only. High religious values and high Christian beliefs predicted ratings of marital therapy situations, where high was defined as one standard deviation above the mean of standardized norm groups. Low to moderate religious values or Christian beliefs did not predict ratings of marital therapy. It was concluded that highly religious couples present a special situation where the marketing, assessment, and practice of marital therapy might differ from therapy with other types of couples.     

Integrating Spirituality Into Counselor Preparation: A Developmental,Wellness Approach

Recent surveys of the general public and of counseling professionals suggest the pervasive importance of spirituality in the lives of all individuals. Yet, the infusion of spirituality in counselor preparation programs continues to be a concern. Incorporating spirituality within a wellness paradigm can help counselors and counselor educators value and address spirituality as an integral component of optimum human functioning. By distinguishing between religiosity and spirituality and operationally conceptualizing spirituality as a life span developmental phenomenon that is essential for achieving wellness, counselor educators can more readily incorporate spiritual issues within the philosophy of the counseling profession.     

The Relationship Between Parent and Child Religiosity: Moderation by Perceived Parental Antisocial Problems

ABSTRACT

Parents influence their children’s religiosity through many factors including parenting practices, parental religiosity, and parental psychopathology. Little research, however, has been conducted on how different parental psychopathologies, such as antisocial problems, affect the relationship between parent and child religiosity. The current study used the Stearns-McKinney Assessment of Religious Traits to measure personal religiosity in emerging adults and asked them to report on the religiosity of their mothers and fathers. Participants reported the antisocial problems of their parents via the Adult Behavior Checklist. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to measure whether perceived parental antisocial problems, parent gender, and participant gender would moderate the relationship between perceived parental and emerging adult religiosity. Results indicated that maternal but not paternal interactions were significant, and gender analyses revealed that the interaction was significant only for females. Specifically, parental antisocial problems were associated with a weaker relationship between parent and child religiosity in the mother–daughter dyad only. Implications are discussed.     

Christian Social Justice Advocate: Contradiction or Legacy?

In this article, the relationship between Christian religiosity and the principles of social justice is explored, including the sociopolitical aspects of faith and advocacy. A particular emphasis is placed on the historical legacy and theological relationships between Christianity and social justice. The author concludes with a call for increasingly overt and intentional social justice work among counselors who self‐identify as Christian.     

Help‐Seeking Behavior Prior to Nearly Lethal Suicide Attempts

T he association between help‐seeking and nearly lethal suicide attempts was evaluated using data from a population‐based, case‐control study of 153 13‐ to 34‐year‐old suicide attempt case‐patients treated at emergency departments in Houston, Texas, and a random sample of 513 control‐subjects. Measures of help‐seeking included whether the participant sought help for health/emotional problems in the past month, type of consultant contacted, and whether suicide was discussed during the interaction. Overall, friends/family were consulted most frequently (48%). After controlling for potential confounders, case‐patients were less likely than control‐subjects to seek help from any consultant (OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3–0.8) or a professional (e.g., physician, counselor) consultant (OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.29–0.8). Among those who sought help, case‐patients were more likely than to discuss suicide (OR = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.2–5.4), particularly with professionals (OR = 11.8, 95% CI = 3.2–43.2). Our findings suggest that efforts to better understand the role of help‐seeking in suicide prevention, including help sought from family and friends, deserves further attention.     

Reconciling Counselors’ Christian Beliefs and Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Transgender Affirmation: A Grounded Theory

The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to learn how 15 Christian heterosexual counselors successfully reconciled a perceived conflict between lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) affirmation and their religious beliefs. Obstacles to reconciliation, helpful factors, states, and participant characteristics were integrated into a grounded theory (the Relational Equilibrium Model) of religious‐based value conflict reconciliation to guide counselor educators and supervisors working with nonaffirming or conflicted Christian trainees to develop LGBT‐affirming dispositions and practices.     

Intrinsic-Extrinsic Religiosity and University Students' Willingness to Donate Organs Posthumously

This research focuses on the links between intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations as they relate to willingness to donate organs posthumously. Participants responded to a factual test of their knowledge about organ donation, indicated their degree of willingness to donate organs, and filled out personality inventories measuring their intrinsic and extrinsic orientations. The data indicated a high level of factual knowledge about organ donation. Also, contrary to Allport's (1966) arguments, people with an intrinsic religious orientation were not more likely to donate their organs, nor were people with an extrinsic religious orientation less likely to do so. Instead, it was found that intrinsic religiosity was unrelated to willingness to donate organs and that extrinsics with strong social orientations were more willing to donate their organs. Discussion centers on the need to develop more psy-chometrically sound measures of mature religiosity as a means of conducting a fairer test of Allport's original theorizing about intrinsic religiosity.