Counseling, Higher Education & Special Education Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2757
Browse
79 results
Search Results
Item Decolonizing in Individual Psychotherapy: A Qualitative Exploration(2024) Bansal, Priya; Hill, Clara E; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)We interviewed 12 therapists experienced in practicing decolonizing about their understanding of decolonizing and its relevance to therapy, as well as how they implemented this approach with at least one client. Interviews were analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) and revealed that colonial paradigms had negative individual, relational, and societal impacts; therapists used a range of interventions aligned with decolonizing, including interventions to help clients gain insight about the systemic context of psychological problems and to facilitate client resistance of colonial ideologies; sociocultural identity interactions between therapist and client considerably shaped the therapy work; therapists encountered conceptual, practical, and systemic barriers to decolonizing practice; and clients experienced improvements across intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning. Implications for practice and research are discussed.Item AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM: THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN RACIAL MICROAGGRESSIONS, COPING, AND HEALTH AMONG BLACK COLLEGE STUDENTS(2024) Brown, Rabia; Lewis, Jioni A.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Black college students endure racial microaggressions in higher education, and current research highlights how racial microaggressions can negatively impact the health of Black college students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between racial microaggressions in higher education, coping strategies (education/advocacy, resistance, detachment, drug/alcohol use, and internalization), and health quality in Black college students. Participants included 155 Black college students that took an online survey as a part of a larger study conducted at a large Southeastern historically white university. Results from the hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated that racial microaggressions were significantly and negatively associated with mental and physical health quality in Black college students. Additionally, results from the mediation analyses found that detachment coping significantly mediated the association between racial microaggressions and mental health in Black college students. This study provides further evidence of the negative impact of racial microaggressions on the health and well-being of Black college students.Item The Role of Effortful Control in Moderating the Relationship Between Temperamental Shyness, Fearfulness, and Internalizing Behaviors(2023) Zheng, Shanyun G; Teglasi, Hedwig; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Internalizing behaviors, such as anxiety and depression, have frequently been associated with temperament characteristics, specifically Behavioral Inhibition (BI) traits, such as Shyness and Fearfulness. While Effortful Control (EC) has been posited as a potential moderator in the relationship between heightened negative emotionality and Internalizing problems, empirical evidence precisely about BI remains inconclusive. This cross-sectional study investigated the role of Effortful Control and its sub-constructs (Attentional Focusing, Inhibitory Control, Low-intensity Pleasure, and Perceptual Sensitivity) in moderating the relation between Behavioral Inhibition (fear and shyness) and internalizing behaviors in a sample of 130 kindergarteners. The findings indicated that Behavioral Inhibition was significantly correlated with and predicted internalizing behaviors. However, no significant correlations were found between Effortful Control, its sub-constructs, and internalizing behaviors in this sample. Additionally, Effortful Control and its sub-constructs did not moderate the relationship between Behavioral Inhibition and internalizing behaviors.Item Therapist Cultural Humility, Black LGB Identity Centrality, and Therapeutic Outcomes in Black LGB Adults.(2023) Teran Hernandez, Manuel; Shin, Richard Q.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Black lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults experience discrimination at individual and institutional levels (Page et al., 2020) in part due to simultaneous experiences of anti-Black racism and heterosexism. Despite this, Black LGB adults continue to underutilize therapeutic services and also report high rates of premature termination from therapy (Garrett-Walker & Longmire-Avital, 2018). The current study advances the literature by investigating the association between therapist cultural humility, Black LGB centrality, and therapeutic outcomes among Black LGB adults. A sample of Black LGB adults (N = 157) participated in an online survey to respond to measures on demographic information, therapist cultural humility, centrality with their race x sexual orientation (Black LGB centrality), and therapeutic outcomes. Results showed that therapist cultural humility was a significant predictor of therapist satisfaction but not future utilization of counseling services while controlling for age and socioeconomic status among Black LGB adults. The analyses found that Black LGB centrality was not a significant moderator in the association between therapist cultural humility and therapist satisfaction, and only significant in the relation between future utilization of counseling services for participants who reported high levels of Black LGB centrality. Recommendations for future clinical practice and research efforts are provided.Item THE ROLE OF SOCIAL DESIRABILITY IN STRUCTURED AND NARRATIVE SELF-REPORT DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC(2023) Delehanty, Alexandria Travis; Teglasi, Hedwig; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This research addressed the key question: Does social desirability operate as a validity confound by adding irrelevant variance to self-reports and narratives, or does it serve as a valuable source of information on how individuals choose to adapt. This study used three conceptualizations of social desirability (the Marlowe-Crowne need for approval, and impression management and self-deception from the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) and investigated their respective relations with self-reports of positive and negative paradigms (e.g. stress and coping, negative and positive affect). Each of these conceptualizations was also related to narrative-based locus of control and coping. The sample comprised 177 U.S. teachers who completed surveys during January-April 2021, in the beginning of the transition back to in-person learning from COVID. Results indicated that social desirability did not operate as a validity confound, and that it served as a valuable source of information of respondents’ personal values in how it influenced the relations among self-reports and coded narratives.Item PARENTAL ETHNIC-RACIAL SOCIALIZATION PROCESSES AMONG CHINESE AMERICAN FAMILIES WITH YOUNG CHILDREN(2023) Zhang, Xinyi; Wang, Cixin; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Despite literature suggesting that socializing children of color regarding race and ethnicity is key to protect them against racism in America, little is known about how Asian American young children are ethnically and racially socialized by their parents. In the event of increased anti-Asian racism during COVID-19, it becomes urgent that we address this knowledge gap. The goal of the present study is to understand the parental ethnic-racial socialization processes with Asian American young children from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Fifty-seven low-income (n=36) and middle-and-upper-income (n=21) Chinese American mothers (Mage = 37.14, SD =4.99) of four-to-seven-year-old children (Mage =5.63, SD =0.82, female n=33, 58%) from Maryland and New York were interviewed. The participants shared the frequency and strategies of their ethnic-racial socialization processes and their perception of the effectiveness of these strategies. Using qualitative content analyses, results indicated that: (a) The two income groups shared the same frequency of using each ethnic-racial socialization dimension (cultural socialization, preparation for bias, promotion of mistrust, and egalitarianism and silence about race); (b) Different patterns emerged in the content of how they used preparation for bias and promotion of mistrust; (c) Mothers from the low-income group were more likely to experience discrimination and to share the discrimination experiences with their children to prepare them for bias; (d) Mothers from both of the income groups recognized that their children face model minority stereotypes in the society, but they held different attitudes towards the stereotypes; (e) The two income groups found cultural socialization helpful and promotion of mistrust harmful. More diversity and less consensus were found in their perception of the effectiveness of preparation for bias and egalitarianism and silence about race. The current study is the first study to reveal diversity of ethnic-racial socialization processes among the Chinese American families with young children. It provides empirical support that socioeconomic context is an indispensable variable in understanding ethnic-racial socialization processes in families of color.Item Getting on the Same Page: Associations of Immediacy and Client-Therapist Alliance Congruence(2022) Hillman, Justin William; Kivlighan, Jr., Dennis M; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined the within-dyad association of immediacy (i.e., a skill that therapists use to work with the therapeutic relationship in the here-and-now) with the strength and congruence of the working alliance across 1352 sessions of 58 adult community clients seeing 11 doctoral student therapists in individual psychodynamic-interpersonal psychotherapy. As a preliminary step, the factor structure and validity were tested for the Metacommunication in Session Questionnaire–Client Form (MSQ-C), a client-rated measure of immediacy adapted from the supervisory MSQ (Calvert, Deane, & Grenyer, 2020). After every session, clients and therapists completed the Working Alliance Inventory–Short Revised (WAI-SR; Hatcher & Gillaspy, 2006) and clients completed the MSQ-C. Factor analysis supported a two-factor structure for MSQ-C (Open Communication and Managing Disagreement/Discomfort factors). Validity of the MSQ-C was supported by predicted correlations with measures of helping skills, sessions quality, alliance, and therapist reported immediacy use, although some associations varied depending on the client or therapist rater perspective. Results of multilevel, latent variable models found that when clients reported more immediacy in a session compared to their average session, they tended to report a stronger alliance; and this effect was strongest in earlier sessions, weaker in magnitude in middle sessions, and non-significant in later sessions. Results of multilevel truth-and-bias models showed that therapist alliance ratings were temporally congruent with client alliance ratings, but client-perceived immediacy did not predict alliance congruence. Limitations and future directions are discussed.Item Differential Codevelopment of Working Alliance and Session Evaluation in Counseling Dyads(2022) Lin, Shihong; Kivlighan, Dennis; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)We examined session quality measured by the session evaluation scale (SES) and the working alliance measured by WAI-SR using the DSEM model, and reported similarities and differences in the codevelopment of the working alliance and session evaluation. In addition, we examined how the dynamic patterns of codevelopment for working alliance and session evaluation are associated with counseling outcomes. Major findings include: 1) there are significant actor effects for both working alliance and session evaluation; 2) In our study, there is no difference between therapist partner effects and client partner effects, for both working alliance and session evaluation; 3) The paths for session-to-session carryover effects (actor and partner effects) were stronger for working alliance than they are for session evaluation; 4) the therapist partner effects for session quality was statistically significantly associated with therapy outcome measure by the Outcome Questionnaire 45.2. Clinical implications of those findings were discussed.Item An Investigation of Factors that Influence Disability Self-Disclosure in Post-Secondary Students(2022) Sullivan, Kathryn E; Wang, Cixin; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)When students with disabilities transition to postsecondary school, they must self-disclose their disability to their institution to receive accommodations. Despite the positive educational outcomes associated with receiving accommodations, many students with disabilities who received accommodations in high school do not go on to self-disclose to receive accommodations in postsecondary school. This study investigated factors that facilitate attitudes towards and the behavior of disability self-disclosure by postsecondary students for accommodations, including quality of transition support, self-determination (self-realization and psychological empowerment), and disability identity. Undergraduate participants were recruited for a survey-based study via university listservs and were included in the study if they had previously received accommodations in high school via an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or a 504 plan, identified as having a nonapparent diagnosis, disability, or learning difference that impacted them educationally, and had attended college for at least one semester. Within the sample (n=285), 67.6% of the participants had registered with their college or university to receive accommodations. Surprisingly, almost half of the participants in this study (45.6%) did not identify as individuals with a disability despite being legally qualified as students with disabilities in high school. Regressions and path analyses were conducted to determine the factors that significantly predicted self-disclosure attitudes and behaviors (i.e., registering for accommodations). The results indicated that high-quality transition experiences in high school positively predicted attitudes towards requesting accommodations and registering for accommodations. Furthermore, a significant indirect effect was found between the quality of transition support and attitudes toward requesting accommodations via disability identity. Contrary to hypotheses, while quality of transition predicted self-determination factors, self-determination factors did not significantly predict self-disclosure attitudes or registering for accommodations. Further exploring quality of transition factors (i.e., school support, home support, and direct discussions about registering with disability services) as predictors, having direct discussions about registering was found to directly predict self-disclosure attitudes and behaviors. A significant indirect effect was also found between school support and attitudes towards requesting accommodations via disability identity. Results of this study highlight the importance of instilling a positive disability identity to drive the self-disclosure process, as well as having direct discussions with students about the processes and procedures for disability self-disclosure during postsecondary transition. Finally, recommendations for secondary and postsecondary institutions were provided for preparing students with disabilities to navigate postsecondary disability services, and further implications for practice and research were discussed.Item PREDICTING POLICY: EXAMINING PERCEPTIONS OF ECONOMIC INEQUALITY, COLOR-EVASIVE RACIAL ATTITUDES, AND BELIEFS ABOUT CAPITALISM(2022) Sharma, Rajni; Kivlighan, Dennis; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examines how beliefs about capitalism, color-evasive racial attitudes, and perceptions about wealth distribution predict redistributive economic policy preferences. I hypothesized that beliefs about capitalism, perceptions of wealth distribution, and color-evasiveness predict policy preferences when controlling for Satisfaction With Life (SWLS) and that critical consciousness action (CA) will moderate this relationship. Approximately 510 individuals completed the Costs of United States Corporate Capitalism (CCC) scale, Colorblind Racial Attitudes Scale (COBRAS), the Critical Action subscale of the Critical Consciousness Scale, ratings of wealth distribution, and questions about their policy preferences through an online survey distributed through MTurk. Results indicated that the CCC and COBRAS subscales predicted policy preferences, over and above demographic variables. Findings from this project may inform how individuals make decisions about policy preferences and on a broader scale, inform solutions for decreasing inequity in the U.S. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.