American Indian college students\u27 counseling attitudes: College adjustment and counselor influences

摘要

The counseling attitudes of 305 entering freshmen, representing 122 tribes at an American Indian college, were surveyed both at the beginning of the fall semester and at the end of the semester following contact with American Indian counselors through campus activities and in a freshman orientation course. Counseling attitudes included the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help (ATSPPH) scale and items pertaining to willingness to use the counseling center. Sociocultural, campus adjustment, and counseling center-specific variables were analyzed to determine whether they influenced or predicted either general or specific counseling attitudes. Sociocultural variables included the students\u27 cultural commitment, gender, and residential setting. Campus adjustment variables encompassed the students\u27 degree of campus integration, involvement in campus activities, and campus cultural integration while counseling center-specific variables were reflected by students\u27 knowledge of available counseling services, number of counselors known, degree of counselor contact, and both perceived and observed counselor cultural sensitivity;Analyses of covariance and correlations conducted at the beginning of the semester found gender to significantly influence both general and specific counseling attitudes, while perceived counselor cultural sensitivity and knowledge of available counseling services correlated positively with willingness to see a staff member at the counseling center. Analyses of data collected following completion of the orientation course indicated that both the degree of campus cultural integration and while perceived counselor cultural sensitivity were positively correlated with general and specific counseling attitudes, while knowledge of available counseling services was positively correlated with the ATSPPH scale. Repeated measures analyses of covariance found only that gender influenced ratings on the ATSPPH scale. Knowledge of available counseling services was the only covariate that significantly predicted ratings on the scale across time;Student evaluations of the orientation course suggested that it demonstrated the counselors\u27 cultural sensitivity, increased the students\u27 knowledge about counseling services and increased students\u27 willingness to see a counselor. The findings support the importance of counselors being active in both assisting American Indian students with their adjustment to campus and increasing their utilization of the counseling center.