Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

College of Applied Human Sciences

Department

Counseling, Rehabilitation Counseling & Counseling Psychology

Committee Chair

Lisa F. Platt

Committee Member

Jeffrey Daniels

Committee Member

Christine Schimmel

Committee Member

Frankie Tack

Abstract

Sexual minority supervisees face unique struggles including prejudice, discrimination, and heterosexism, which may impact their psychological well-being and development within the supervisory experience through shame proneness and reduced disclosure. This study aims to explore the challenges facing sexual minority trainees and contribute to the empirical knowledge of multicultural supervision. Thus, this study proposes two mediation models for the hypothesized relationships among internalized heterosexism, shame-related withdrawal, shame-related negative self-evaluation, and disclosure in supervision. A total of 170 supervisees identifying as sexual minorities completed an online survey. The primary analysis included a three-step linear regression and confirmatory analysis for mediation. The results show that internalized heterosexism has a significant influence on disclosure. Additionally, the findings confirm that shame-related withdrawal behaviors mediate the influence of internalized heterosexism on disclosure. Further, internalized heterosexism was found to have no significant influence on shame-related negative self-evaluation. Thus, internalized heterosexism and shame-related negative self-evaluation both directly influence disclosure. These results confirm that internalized heterosexism has a direct relationship on disclosure and an indirect relationship on disclosure through shame-related withdrawal. The implications of these findings are discussed to help faculty and supervisors better serve sexual minority supervisees.

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