Johanna E. Nilsson

Supervising international students: The role of acculturation, role ambiguity, and multicultural discussions

Little is known about the training needs of international students in professional psychology programs and what supervisors could do to assist these students in their training. This study surveyed 42 international students in programs accredited by the American Psychological Association concerning several training and supervision variables. Results revealed that students who reported being less acculturated also reported less counseling self-efficacy, weaker supervisory working alliances, more role difficulties in supervision, and more discussion of cultural issues in supervision. Implications for supervision and future research are discussed.

Practices Regarding Reporting of Reliability Coefficients: A Review of Three Journals.

Practices regarding the reporting of reliability coefficients in 3 journals from 1990 to 1997 were examined. Given that scores, not tests, are reliable or unreliable, particular attention was paid to the provision of reliability coefficients computed for the data actually being analyzed in substantive studies. One third of the articles reviewed made no mention of reliability. Almost 36% of the articles provided reliability coefficients for the data being analyzed. Examples of good reporting practices are provided. In 2 of the 3 journals reviewed, there was little change in the frequency and style of reliability reporting in the period covered. The authors suggest a modification in editorial journal policies to bring about a change in reliability-coefficient reporting practices.

Reliability Generalization: An Examination of the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale.

The purpose of the present study was to explore the variability in reliability scores on a commonly used career scale, the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale (CDMSE). Reliability generalization was employed to identify typical score reliability, variability of score reliability, and variables explaining this variability. Forty-nine pieces of work were examined, and the results revealed that 41% of them reported score reliability of their own data. Of the five subscales, Problem Solving showed the lowest score reliability. In addition, higher score reliability was associated with age, sample racial/ethnic demographics, and standard deviation of total mean score.

Social Justice Advocacy among Graduate Students in Counseling: An Initial Exploration

This study examined variables that were hypothesized to contribute to social justice advocacy among 134 graduate students enrolled in counseling programs, including problem solving skills, worldview, social concern, and political interest. Of these variables, the desire to become involved in social justice advocacy and political interest predicted actual engagement in social justice advocacy. The results also showed that many of the participants presented with low levels of social justice advocacy. Implications for training and research are included.

Acculturation, Partner Violence, and Psychological Distress in Refugee Women From Somalia

This study examined the relations among acculturation, domestic violence, and mental health in 62 married refugee women from Somalia. Refugees from Somalia constituted the largest group of refugees entering the United States in 2005, and little is known about the presence of domestic violence in this group. The results showed that women who reported greater ability to speak English also reported more experiences of partner psychological abuse and physical aggression. Experiences of more psychological abuse and physical aggressions also predicted more psychological distress. Implications for future research and psychological services are addressed.

Development and Assessment of the Social Issues Advocacy Scale

This article describes the development and the initial psychometric evaluation of the Social Issues Advocacy Scale in two studies. In the first study, an exploratory factor analysis (n = 278) revealed a four-factor scale, accounting for 71.4% of the variance, measuring different aspects of social issue advocacy: Political and Social Advocacy, Confronting Discrimination, Political Awareness, and Social Issue Awareness. The second study (n = 509) supported the structure. Results indicated excellent internal reliability and associations with another social advocacy scale, political interest, and multicultural empathy, but not with self-esteem and life satisfaction; all of which provided initial evidence of construct and discriminant validity.

An 11-year review of Professional Psychology: Research and practice: Content and sample analysis with an emphasis on diversity

Practitioners may turn to Professional Psychology: Research and Practice (PPRP) to read about current professional issues, find out about the experiences of other professionals, and learn about new techniques to improve practice. How do we know whether PPRP meets its mission to provide such services to its readership? This study investigated the content of articles, the samples used in empirical studies, and the multicultural coverage in articles published in PPRP between 1990 and 2000. The results showed that PPRP publishes a wide range of topics applicable to its readership. However, the findings that few of the articles employed clinical samples and descriptions of these samples and that there was a lack of focus on specific cultural groups have implications for practitioners.

Self-Silencing, Emotional Awareness, and Eating Behaviors in College Women

Self-silencing (or the suppression of expressing one’s thoughts, feelings, and needs) can have a negative impact on the mental health of women, from depression to disordered eating behaviors. The authors examined the relationship between self-silencing and disordered eating as well as intuitive eating. The authors also explored whether emotional awareness would moderate these relationships because conflicts over expressiveness are associated with emotional problems and eating disorders. The sample comprised 140 college women (52% White; 36% Black) under the age of 24 from a midwestern urban university. Their results revealed that emotional awareness moderated the relationships between self-silencing and disordered eating and intuitive eating. Specifically, when there were lower levels of emotional awareness, self-silencing with disordered eating and intuitive eating were unrelated; however, with higher levels of emotional awareness together with more self-silencing, participants presented with more disordered eating and less intuitive eating. The findings highlight the importance of supporting women’s emotional awareness in conjunction with their expressiveness of thoughts, feelings, and needs to increase intuitive eating and decrease disordered eating.

Internationalizing counselling: A Southeast Asian perspective

To learn about our Southeast Asian colleagues’ views on internationalizing counselling psychology to Asian cultures, we interviewed eight counselling psychologists who had received their doctoral training in the United States. Four of the participants were currently practicing and teaching in their native countries and four in the United States. Using the basic principles of Grounded Theory [Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago, IL: Aldine.], we derived two themes from the data: (1) major assumptions in US counselling psychology that may limit its transferability to Southeast Asian cultures and (2) practices in learning, training, and cultural adjusting for future development and internationalization of counselling psychology. The participants emphasized the need for indigenization and knowledge sharing in the efforts to internationalize counselling psychology.

Postdeployment reintegration experiences of female soldiers from national guard and reserve units in the United States.

BackgroundWomen are an integral part of Reserve and National Guard units and active duty armed forces of the United States. Deployment to conflict and war zones is a difficult experience for both soldiers and their families. On return from deployment, all soldiers face the challenge of reintegration into family life and society, but those from the National Guard and Reserve units face the additional challenge of reintegration in relative isolation from other soldiers. There is limited research about the reintegration experiences of women and the functioning of the families during reintegration following deployment. ObjectiveThe goal was to document postdeployment family reintegration experiences of women in the National Guard. MethodsSemistructured interviews were conducted with 42 female members of Midwestern National Guard units. Directed content analysis was used to identify categories of experiences related to women’s family reintegration. ResultsFive categories of postdeployment experience for female soldiers and their families were identified: Life Is More Complex, Loss of Military Role, Deployment Changes You, Reestablishing Partner Connections, and Being Mom Again. DiscussionThe categories reflected individual and family issues, and both need to be considered when soldiers and their families seek care. Additional research is needed to fully understand the specific impact of gender on women’s reintegration.