Multicultural Competence and Counselor Training: A National Survey

The extent to which practicing professional counselors perceive themselves as multiculturally competent and the basis for their training experiences in multicultural counseling have not been determined. This article reports the results of a survey on practicing professional counselors' perceptions of their multicultural competence and the nature of their pre- and in-service professional preparation in this area. There was no significant difference in self-perceived multicultural competence between graduates of Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accredited and nonaccredited programs. However, ethnicity was related to higher levels of perceived multicultural competence.     

Children's Participation in Genetic Prevalence Research: Influences on Enrollment and Reports of Parent Satisfaction1

The present studies were designed to evaluate methodological influences on the efficiency of genetic-screening studies, specifically when enrolling preschoolers in a prevalence study of the fragile X full mutation. The studies include replication of earlier findings with school-age children, which showed that (a) a higher enrollment rate occurred when the study was introduced to a parent by a physician (73.7%) versus by a research assistant (58.7%), and (b) parents initially undecided about participating were more likely to eventually enroll if they had completed enrollment forms at the time of recruitment, In-person recruitment led to higher enrollment rates (60%) than did recruitment by mail (36.8%). Feedback from parents indicated the importance of emphasizing the optional nature of participation in screening studies.     

Grandparents and Stepgrandparents: Challenges in Counseling the Extended-Blended Family

Remarriage of parents may bring new grandparents and stepgrandparents into the lives of children, creating new family structures and needs for adjustment. The extended-blended family may benefit from specific counseling interventions.     

Effects of reinforcement history on responding under progressive-ratio schedules of reinforcement.

The effects of experimental history on responding under a progressive-ratio schedule of reinforcement were examined. Sixteen pigeons were divided into four equal groups. Groups 1 to 3 were trained to peck a key for food under a fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, or differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedule of reinforcement. After training, these pigeons were shifted to a progressive-ratio schedule, later were shifted back to their original schedule (with decreased rates of reinforcement), and finally were returned to the progressive-ratio schedule. Pigeons in Group 4 (control) were maintained on the progressive-ratio schedule for the entire experiment. To test for potential "latent history" effects, pigeons responding under the progressive-ratio schedule were injected with d-amphetamine and given behavioral-momentum tests of prefeeding and extinction. Experimental histories affected responding in the immediate transition to the progressive-ratio schedule; response rates of pigeons with variable-ratio and fixed-ratio histories were higher than rates of pigeons with differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate and progressive-ratio-only histories. Pigeons with differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate histories, and to a lesser degree pigeons with variable-ratio and fixed-ratio histories, also had shorter postreinforcement pauses than pigeons with only a progressive-ratio history. No consistent long-term effects of prior contingencies on responding under the progressive-ratio schedule were evident. d-Amphetamine and resistance-to-change tests failed to reveal consistent latent history effects. The data suggest that history effects are sometimes transitory and not susceptible to latent influences.     

The Relationship Between Marital Characteristics,Marital Interaction Processes,and Marital Satisfaction

Structural Equation Modeling techniques were used to clarify the relationship between marital characteristics, marital processes, and the dependent variable—marital satisfaction—in a sample of 201 participants who were in 1st marriages. The Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS; G. B. Spanier, 1976) and the Enriching and Nurturing Relationship Issues, Communication and Happiness Inventory (ENRICH; D. H. Olson, D. G. Fournier, & J. M. Druckman, 1987) provided scales to measure marital interaction processes and marital satisfaction. A new instrument, the Characteristics of Marriage Inventory (CHARISMA; J. R. Rosen‐Grandon & J. E. Myers, 2001), was developed using factor analysis to determine which marital characteristics were statistically significant. Structural equation modeling identified a path model wherein 6 marital interaction processes had a statistically significant influence on marital satisfaction when mediated by 3 latent factors of marital characteristics (love, loyalty, and shared values) and 2 moderating variables (length of marriage and gender of participant).     

Computing aspects of power for multiple regression.

Rules of thumb for power in multiple regression research abound. Most such rules dictate the necessary sample size, but they are based only upon the number of predictor variables, usually ignoring other critical factors necessary to compute power accurately. Other guides to power in multiple regression typically use approximate rather than precise equations for the underlying distribution; entail complex preparatory computations; require interpolation with tabular presentation formats; run only under software such as Mathmatica or SAS that may not be immediately available to the user; or are sold to the user as parts of power computation packages. In contrast, the program we offer herein is immediately downloadable at no charge, runs under Windows, is interactive, self-explanatory, flexible to fit the user's own regression problems, and is as accurate as single precision computation ordinarily permits.     

Who Will Volunteer? Religiosity, Everyday Racism, and Social Participation Among African American Men

This study explores the relative importance of everyday racism, empathic concern, communalism, and religiosity as predictors of pro-social involvement (i.e., volunteerism and membership in political/social justice organizations) among a sample of African American men (N = 151). Church involvement emerged as a positive predictor of the likelihood that these men were involved in volunteer work as well as the number of hours that men dedicated to volunteer work. Communalism positively predicted the amount of time (in hours per year) that men were involved in volunteer work. Subjective religiosity and the stress of everyday racism were associated with a greater likelihood of being a member of a political–social justice organization. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Pediatric Whole Exome Sequencing: an Assessment of Parents’ Perceived and Actual Understanding.

Whole exome sequencing (WES) is an integral tool in the diagnosis of genetic conditions in pediatric patients, but concerns have been expressed about the complexity of the information and the possibility for secondary findings that need to be conveyed to those deciding about WES. Currently, there is no validated tool to assess parental understanding of WES. We developed and implemented a survey to assess perceived and actual understanding of WES in parents who consented to clinical WES for their child between July 2013 and May 2015. Fifty-three eligible surveys were returned (57% response rate). Areas with both low perceived and actual understanding about WES included how genes are analyzed and lack of protection against life insurance discrimination. Parents also had low actual understanding for two questions related to secondary findings – reporting of secondary findings in a parent (if tested) and whether secondary findings can be related to traits such as height and hair color. Further work to develop a validated tool to assess understanding of WES would be beneficial as WES is integrated more frequently into clinical care.     

Views on Abortion: A Comparison of Female Genetic Counselors and Women from the General Population

While literature characterizing individual genetic counselors’ abortion attitudes is sparse, the National Society of Genetic Counselors takes a clear stance for reproductive autonomy. To determine genetic counselors’ views, this study compared (1) genetic counselors’ abortion attitudes to those of women from the general population and (2) genetic counselors’ professional abortion attitudes to their personal abortion attitudes. Genetic counselors were invited to complete an online survey. Response rate was 44.3% (709/1,601). Compared to women from the general population, female genetic counselors were significantly more likely to agree abortion should be an option in all cases (p < .001). Controlling for other possible confounders, regression analyses revealed that being a genetic counselor, religious service attendance and age were significantly predictive of abortion attitudes. Although the vast majority of genetic counselors agree that abortion should be available, they are significantly less likely to personally consider abortion under all circumstances presented (p < .001), and the percentage of genetic counselors who would consider terminating in the case of a severe birth defect is similar to studies of other women.