On social media platforms and on blog sites, disordered behavior as a lifestyle choice is a growing trend that supports and promotes behaviors related to self-harm and anorexia. Web content advocating self-harm and anorexia can be found easily through search engines or can be concealed in the social media sphere...
Counseling professionals working with adolescent populations are reporting more and more adolescents experiencing suicidal ideation and attempt each year. The current literature on adolescent suicidality lacks theoretical presence, appears to rely on implications from findings on suicidal adults, and seems limited to in-patient teenaged populations (e.g., Horton et al., 2015;...
Gifted education has historically involved disproportionate rates of identification and enrollment for both students of color and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, depriving these groups of more challenging learning opportunities. Giftedness transcends subgroups, spanning all racial, socioeconomic, and disability categories; still, data indicate that Asian and White students are identified...
For good reason, suicide is of growing concern across the nation; rates continue to increase annually in the United States. Accurate assessment remains an obstacle to effective treatment for individuals who are suicidal. Without proper screening, a client cannot get a referral to see a specialist and therefore cannot receive...
Treatment providers seek low-cost, high-impact means of engaging clients in care with the aim to enhance treatment delivery and outcomes. With improvements to mobile technology making cell phone accessibility and usage rates high across all socio-economic levels, text messaging is becoming more frequently utilized as a means of promoting provider-client...
Almost two decades have passed since the publication of Jackson and Leffingwell’s (1999) influential article on math anxiety in preservice school teachers and their worst math experiences. The present dissertation represents both a replication and an extension of the original study. Study Arm A was the replication study with preservice...
Recent reports at the state, national, and international level have called for increased earthquake and tsunami education to increase knowledge of the causes of these hazards, risks from these hazards, and preparedness measures to reduce risk and increase resilience to these hazards. One recommended approach to meet this need is...
The number of women in doctoral programs is increasing each year and women now comprise the majority of doctoral students in America (U.S. Department of Education, 2015). Previous research has shown the high levels of complexities and stresses that female doctoral students face during their studies (Mallinckrodt & Leong,1992) and...
The purpose of this dissertation was to contribute to understanding teachers’ experiences as facilitators of class meetings and the supports that can affect their facilitation. Chapter 2 is the manuscript, Maximize the Benefit of Class Meetings: Facilitating the Class Meeting as a Therapeutic Group. It was a conceptual article on...
Previous reports on the state of the Latino/a-focused mental health literature suggest that the quantity of Latino/a-focused articles within the mental health field continued to be disproportionate to the growing percentage of Latino/as in the United States (Liang, Salcedo, Rivera, & Lopez, 2009). As such, Latino/a mental health experiences, needs,...
Bullying cultivates insecurity and fear while generating attention for the perpetrator and degrading the student-victim in front of others. The act erodes the self-efficacy and identity of minority students more specifically and produces a hostile climate that undermines the learning and social development to all affected. Despite the pervasive negative...
The purpose of this dissertation was to add to the professional literature in counselor education and supervision through inquiry and synthesis of research among online teaching, online counseling, and online communities of practice through the supervision lens of the Discrimination Model. A unique, research-informed framework for synchronous online supervision (i.e.,...
The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the relationship between the personal spiritual and religious practices of counselor supervisors and their wellness and spiritual competence. A cross sectional survey design was used to collect information about the frequency and importance of both spiritual and religious practices, scores on the...
The American School Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics states that counselors and counselor trainees must be competent providers of multicultural counseling, able to practice effectively with clients whose identities differ from their own. Pre-service school counselors receive very little training around immigration status and how to work with clients who...
Student success in terms of college preparedness and postsecondary college enrollment is one of the current major focus in the school counseling profession. The current literature indicates that school counselors can positively influence their students’ needs and performance outcomes, yet the profession is calling for more evidence to support the...
The purpose of this dissertation was to contribute to understanding the client's experience of power in their therapeutic relationships with mental health professionals. The manuscript in Chapter 2, A Critical Metasynthesis of the Qualitative Research on the Client's Experience of Power in the Therapeutic Relationship, used qualitative metasynthesis to review...
Research exploring methods to improve student learning of leadership, mathematics, and science in the United States is critically important. In this study, I sought to delve into the potential for student learning of leadership, mathematics, and science within the context of school-based agricultural education. Recognizing the teacher as a gatekeeper...
The purpose of this dissertation was to contribute to the current understanding about identity development in young adults who experience psychosis and schizophrenia. The article in Chapter 2 Using Authentic Identity Theories to Address the Stigmatization of Young People Who Experience Psychosis and Schizophrenia examined the literature on identity development...
Professional organizations in the fields of counseling and psychotherapy-related professions all require counselors and counseling students to work with a vast array of potential clients who may differ significantly from themselves. For example, these counselor and client differences can include one or several factors such as age, race, ethnicity, ability...
Research universities in the United States recognize the importance of attracting graduate students from around the world to make global collaborations possible and to take advantage of the worldwide demand for higher education. Educational research has developed a large body of literature on the specialized supports that improve successful outcomes...
The American Counseling Association's Code of Ethics states that counselors and
counselor trainees must be competent providers of multicultural counseling, able to practice
effectively with clients whose identities differ from their own. Counseling students and trainees
receive very little training around sexual orientation and how to work with clients who...
The purpose of this dissertation is twofold; to review existing literature regarding the process of international student transition to the United States and to specifically increase the understanding of the experiences of a defined international student population through an original grounded theory study. Specifically, the study describes experiences of South...
The purpose of the dissertation was to gain an understanding of counselor professional identity and identity development, as well as an understanding of the experiences of doctoral students as they develop their professional identity within a nontraditional (hybrid) counselor education (CE) program. This was accomplished through systematic literature review of...
Gaining professional experience via internship is a pivotal career development event for college students, but research indicates that there is class disparity in the access and benefit from of internship. Career counselors on college campuses have a role in facilitating preparation and coordinating systemic supports for equitable access and benefit...
The purpose of this dissertation was to increase understanding of adolescent school counseling groups including a literature review of the quantitative outcome research on group work with adolescents in the schools and a qualitative exploration of the adolescent experience of cohesion in rural school counseling groups. Outcome research on group...
This thesis is a report of a phenomenological-informed study of public university student spiritual development. The research was based primarily upon semi-structured personal interviews and a focus group with undergraduate students at a large, public research institution on the west coast. Since the introduction of scientific objectivity into the academy...
Latinos have the lowest high school completion rates in the United States (United States Census, 2010). School counselors are well positioned to lead the efforts to increase these rates. Indeed, such leadership is mandated by both the ethical and program standards of the American School Counselor Association. However, little is...
The field of threat assessment and management in higher education is in the early stages of development. In particular, little is noted in the research literature about the practices of threat assessment teams in this environment. To fill this knowledge gap, a random national sample of 15% (n = 148)...
There is a knowledge gap concerning the outcomes of early adolescent sexual initiation (ASI). In particular, the influence of early ASI upon adult attachment is unknown. A multiple regression study was conducted to address this knowledge gap. Adult partner/spouse attachment was the criterion variable, and the predictor variables included both...
Research indicates that enduring interparental conflict before, during, and after divorce has negative effects on children. Parental conflict can be reduced utilizing alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes such as mediation and collaborative divorce. The purpose of this dissertation was to produce two manuscripts examining the role of the child specialist...
Gender role conflict has been found to be a psychological condition that produces negative outcomes for men as they negotiate the tensions between who they truly are and who they feel they must be based on social expectations (O'Neil, Helms, Gable, David, & Wrightsman, 1986). Recent studies on college men's...
This qualitative study explored the gendered professional experiences of male elementary school counselors. The participants or co-researchers were twelve men of varied ethnic and racial backgrounds between 25 and 60 years old. They lived and worked in five US states in urban, suburban and rural settings. They provided school counseling...
Grief--the reaction to a significant loss--is a near-universal human experience, from which a subset of grievers (10%-15%) have difficulty recovering, placing them at high risk for negative health and mental health outcomes (Marks, Jun, & Song, 2007). For those showing substantial distress, counseling has been shown to be an effective...
The purpose of this manuscript style dissertation was to increase understanding of the experiences of counselor's with compassion fatigue as they participated in a yoga intervention. Compassion fatigue is a condition that creates both physical and psychological impairment as a result of working in the helping role. Yoga is an...
The purpose of this study was to determine the impact a narrative reflecting team experience has on counselor self-efficacy. Through a quasi-experimental design, the use of a narrative reflecting team supervision model was compared to supervision as usual with graduate counseling students (N=12). The Counselor Self-Estimate Inventory (COSE) was chosen...
This qualitative study explored the experiences of self-identified White students currently enrolled at a predominantly White institution who were cross- racially involved for at least ten weeks in a multicultural association, club, or organization that had students of color as the racial majority. This study also examined students' consciousness of...
Changing trends within the mental health system treatment practices demand exploration of the cultural context of assessment and treatment of Black/African Americans. Culturally competent assessments include a realistic integration of historical context. Clinicians counseling Black/African Americans must be prepared to assess and address PTSD, racial trauma, micro-aggressions, and other known...
The purpose of this dissertation was to increase our understanding of novice counselors as they initially treat adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (ASCSA).
The researcher used the grounded theory approach, a qualitative method, in order to describe richly and sensitively the first interactions between counselors-in-training and ASCSA. Seven novice...