Abstract
Sexuality is fundamental to the human experience and sexuality issues will affect every individual across the lifespan. Mental health counseling professionals (MHCPs) will likely encounter a client in their practice that presents with some facet of sexuality concern. MHCPs may be challenged by these disclosures or neglect to inquire about these needs due to underlying factors that contribute to decreased willingness to discuss sexuality with clients. This study explored the relationships of some of these factors, including sexual intervention self-efficacy, state anxiety, and trait anxiety, and further examined the extent to which these factors predict willingness to discuss sexuality with clients among licensed professional clinical counselors and licensed marriage and family therapists in the state of Minnesota. Participants completed an online survey that measured their sexual intervention self-efficacy, state anxiety, trait anxiety, and willingness to discuss sexuality with clients. Significant relationships were found between sexual intervention self-efficacy and state anxiety, sexual intervention self-efficacy and trait anxiety, and state anxiety and trait anxiety. Additionally, sexual intervention self-efficacy was found to statistically significantly predict willingness to discuss sexuality with clients. In accordance with the findings of this study, limitations, recommendations for future research, and implications for future practice are discussed.
Advisor
Diane Coursol
Committee Member
Jacqueline Lewis
Committee Member
Richard Auger
Committee Member
Ann Miller
Date of Degree
2021
Language
english
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Counseling and Student Personnel
College
Education
Recommended Citation
Thompson, B. L. (2021). Predicting mental health counseling professionals’ willingness to discuss sexuality issues with clients [Doctoral dissertation, Minnesota State University, Mankato]. Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/1135/
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
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