Retention remains a problem for postsecondary institutions and college students. To address these issues, researchers have sought to identify factors of college success and retention. Findings have consistently shown the importance of psychosocial factors and mental health on college students’ academic success. As such, university and college counseling centers are well positioned to enhance students’ academic success by addressing psychosocial distress. However, existing literature on the effect of counseling on college students’ academic success is mixed, and limitations exist. To address previous limitations of the literature, this study utilized an interrupted time series design to examine differences in students’ postcounseling academic success compared to their precounseling academic success. Additionally, we examined the association between changes in students’ psychological distress and academic distress for students who endorsed clinical distress at the onset of counseling and changes in their grade point average (GPA) over time. Data for this study consisted of 1,231 clients seen by 49 therapists at a university counseling center. As hypothesized, students’ GPAs increased at a greater rate postcounseling compared to precounseling. Additionally, for students who were clinically distressed at the onset of counseling, reductions in their psychological distress were associated with positive changes in their GPA over time, but the relationship between changes in their academic distress and changes in their GPA was not significant. This study suggests that counseling can be beneficial for college students’ academic success, in part due to changes in students’ psychological distress, but not their academic distress, specifically for clinically distressed students.
Women and Men of Color experience racism in unique and complex ways, just as White Women and Women of Color experience unique forms of sexism (i.e., gendered racism). Traditional analyses of therapists' cultural competence, broadly defined, have yet to examine the effect of intersectionality on the processes and outcomes of psychotherapy. Although previous research suggests that therapists differ in their effectiveness with Racial-Ethnic Minority (REM) clients, no study has examined therapist effects in terms of the intersectionality of clients' race-ethnicity and gender. This study applied an intersectionality framework to test therapist effects due to clients' race-ethnicity and gender. Data for this study consisted of 415 clients treated by 16 therapists. Results indicated that therapists differed in their ability to produce changes in symptom-defined psychological distress as a function of clients' intersecting identities of race-ethnicity and gender. Clinical implications and future research are discussed.
Public Significance StatementThis study provides evidence of therapists' differential effectiveness with Women of Color, Men of Color, White women, and White men. Therapist effectiveness differed based on clients' intersecting identities of race-ethnicity and gender.
The effects of attitudes and practices that tend to omit, exclude, overlook, or misrepresent lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people are evidenced in the presenting problems of many LGB clients (Albee, 1995; Uribe & Harbeck, 1991). These problems include (a) feeling disconnected from a sense of identity and community, (b) depression stemming from self-hate or feelings of failure for being someone who is less than societally ideal, and (c) high levels of fear or emotional flatness resulting from having to hide and change one's natural sense of self (Browning, Reynolds, & Dworkin, 1991; Shannon 6r Woods, 1991).Service delivery options typically available to mental health providers include individual, group, and couples counseling approaches (see chapters 7, 8, and 12, this volume, respectively). As is indicated in many of the preceding chapters, working with LGB clients can be developmentally enriching for both client and therapist (Silverstein, 1991). Despite the ben-359
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