Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Date of Award

January 2016

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Counselor Education

First Advisor

John Pietrofesa

Abstract

Intimate partner violence has both physical and psychological effects and its monetary cost on the economy is enormous. IPV affects large number of people regardless of their religious affiliations, gender, sexual preference, or nationality. Because counselors are most likely to counsel IPV clients due to the high prevalence of partner violence, in depth knowledge of IPV is required to effectively handle IPV cases. Existing literature shows that novice counselors feel inadequate and experience difficulties in counseling IPV clients. To understand the challenges associated with counseling IPV clients, the current research study explores the opinions, knowledge, and perceived preparedness of counseling students to counsel IPV clients

In the study, thirty (30) master’s students in a counseling program were recruited. Fifteen participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group and another fifteen to the control group. There were three main hypotheses for this study. Hypothesis 1: There is no significant difference in the mean scores of perceived preparedness between the experimental group and the control group after IPV education.

Hypothesis 2: There is no significant difference in the mean scores of students’ IPV Knowledge between the experimental group and the control group after IPV education.

Hypothesis 3: There is no significant difference in the mean scores of students’ opinions between the experimental group and the control group after IPV education.

The first and third hypotheses were tested with repeated measures ANOVA, and the second hypothesis was tested with the kruskal-Wallis and the Mann-Whitey nonparametric tests. The results showed that the opinions, knowledge, and the perceived preparedness of students in the experimental group improved significantly in contrast to students in the control group. In addition, the opinion of students, their IPV knowledge and perceived preparedness were highly correlated. The results of this study demonstrate the need to adequately prepare counseling students to counsel IPV clients rather than the reliance on the general academic curriculum.

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