Abstract
The current study tested a conceptual model based on social- cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986), highlighting the influence of attitudes toward sexual minority individuals, training hours, affirmative counseling self-efficacy, and beliefs about affirmative practice on therapist engagement in lesbian and gay affirmative practice. We recruited via the Internet 443 heterosexual psychologists (n = 270), clinical social workers (n = 110), and marriage and family therapists (n = 63) residing in various parts of the United States. The majority of participants identified as female (70%) and White (88%). A path analysis indicated that beliefs and affirmative counseling self-efficacy mediated associations between attitudes and therapist engagement in affirmative practice. Furthermore, self-efficacy mediated the relation between training hours and engagement in affirmative practice. Results suggest that more affirmative attitudes are linked with higher levels of affirmative counseling self-efficacy and more positive beliefs, which in turn positively influences therapist engagement in affirmative practice. Additionally, more hours of training influence affirmative counseling self-efficacy, which in turn correlates with higher levels of therapist engagement in affirmative practice. The discussion includes implications for affirmative practice training.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 298-307 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Psychotherapy |
Volume | 52 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 1 2015 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Affirmative practice
- LGB-affirmative counseling self-efficacy
- Lesbian and gay clients
- Psychotherapy training
- Social-cognitive theory
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Psychology
- Psychiatry and Mental health