Moral development, counseling self-efficacy, and counselors-in-training sexual orientation counseling competencies

Date
2014-12
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Abstract

The current quantitative study examined aspect of counseling students' knowledge of working with lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) clients from training in both graduate coursework and professional development opportunities. It also examined the moral reasoning abilities and LGB counseling self-efficacy of students with any possible affects on their ability to become culturally competent counselors. The purpose of this study was to fill a void in the literature by exploring moral development and affirmative therapy of graduate counseling students and possible association of their perceived competencies when working with gay, lesbian, and bisexual clients. Participants included 78 counseling graduate students located throughout the United States. Multiple regression tests were run to examine perceived sexual orientation counseling competency with self-efficacy and moral development. The results of this study suggests higher levels of self-efficacy and development of moral reasoning lead to higher levels of perceived competency, as well as higher development of moral reasoning leads to higher self-efficacy. The study also suggest participation in one or more professional development sessions, self-efficacy increases, however participation in counseling multicultural courses is unrelated to self-efficacy.

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Keywords
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Moral development, Self-efficacy
Citation