The Impact of Counselor and Participant Gender on Willingness to Discuss Relational Topics: Development of the Relationship Disclosure Scale

Abstract

The current investigation examined people's willingness to disclose personal information about their intimate relationships to counselors. This was accomplished by asking 431 students to indicate how willing they would be to discuss 25 relationship topics, as measured by the newly developed Relationship Disclosure Scale (RDS), with female and male counselors. The results indicated that people's willingness to disclose their intimate relationships to counselors depended on their own gender, the gender of the counselor, and the particular relationship topics assessed by the RDS. In addition, several personality variables associated with relational‐esteem and relational‐consciousness were found to be associated with women's willingness to engage in relationship disclosure with male and female counselors. These findings underscore the impact of gender and personality on counseling disclosure tendencies. The discussion focuses on gender and the use of the RDS in research and counseling settings.

Asian‐American Acculturation, Gender, and Willingness to Seek Counseling

“…Good, Dell, and Mink (1989) found that women in general are more likely to seek counseling than men in general by a ratio of 3 to 2. Similar findings have been reported by Snell, Hampton, and McManus (1992) and Cook et al (1984). Unfortunately, only a few studies have examined the relationship between gender and willingness to seek counseling among Asian Americans.…”

The Relationships Between Mexican American Acculturation, Cultural Values, Gender, and Help‐Seeking Intentions

“…Another variable related to help seeking and of interest to this study was gender. It is well documented that in the general population women use counseling services more often than men do because of male socialization toward emotional inexpressiveness and minimal self-disclosure (Snell, Hampton, & McManus, 1992). The assumption in the literature regarding Mexican American men and women is that they underuse psychological services at the same rate.…”

The Perceptions of Students about the Role of School Counselors on Career Selection

“…Additionally, many personality variants such as relational consciousness and relational-esteem associated with the willingness of females to discuss with both male and female counselors. However, Snell Jr. et al (2012) concluded that the gender of the counselors does not significantly affect the perceptions of the students with regards to the role of the school counselors and career selection. Tang (2008) ascertains that the vocational choice theory postulated by Holland in 1997 has enormously impacted the ideologies of career counseling, vocational theories, and career assessment.…”

“…Another study implemented by Snell Jr, Hampton, and McManus (2012) explored the effects of participant and counsellor gender on the willingness to express themselves and disclose relationships. Snell Jr et al (2012) connote that many researchers have delved into the issues concerning counseling including counselor's gender, client gender, and counselor-client gender pairings. The researchers accomplished their study objective among 431 students who indicated how the gender of counselors affects their disclosure.…”