Counseling Women : Who is Most Effective? / Robbie J. Steward, Hanik Jo and Alfiee M. Breland.

If counselors and other mental health professionals are to improve service delivery to women, research must provide a thorough understanding of the facets of counseling that are most beneficial to women. To help in this endeavor, the relationship between female counselor variables and the evaluation of counseling effectiveness by female clients are explored here. For this study, 7 White American and 12 African American undergraduate students, ages 19-23, role played as clients and were asked to complete 4 person-variable measures. Nineteen White American graduate student counselor trainees, ages 23-41, also completed the measures and were asked to role-play a session with "clients." Results indicate that a feminine sex role was significantly and positively correlated with a more positive self-concept for all "clients" and that no person-variables predicted perceptions of counselor effectiveness. However, counselors' self concept served as a predictor of counselor effectiveness with African American women. Further, feminine sex role and a more engaging interpersonal style were highly correlated with internal locus of control for White American women. Finally, a more interactive interpersonal style was significantly correlated with a more positive self concept for African American women. White American women's highly engaging interpersonal style was significantly correlated with an internal locus of control. Contains 14 references. (MKA)

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