Rehabilitation Counseling Master's Students: Beliefs and Attitudes About Domestic Violence Toward Women

Domestic violence is a national concern that affects women of all ages and ethnicities, as well as women with disabilities. Although there is literature focusing on attitudes about domestic violence toward women, the literature review provided no studies that investigated attitudes about domestic violence toward women in relation to domestic violence knowledge, counselor competency, and counselor comfort level. Statistics reveal the increasing number of women who are in abusive relationships and the mental and health effects of domestic violence abuse.

This study explored Rehabilitation Counseling master's students' attitudes and beliefs about domestic violence toward women. The participants were 113 Rehabilitation Counseling master's students enrolled in Rehabilitation Counseling master's programs in 30 universities in different geographical regions of the United States. The study consisted of a demographic questionnaire and five research instruments: the Attitudes Toward Women Scale, the Domestic Violence Blame Scale, the Perceived Counselor Comfort Scale, the Domestic Violence Knowledge Test, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale.

The results of the three hierarchical regression analyses are provided. First, there was significance based on domestic violence knowledge and race/ethnicity, and domestic violence and age: (a) Participants who identified as African American scored lower in domestic violence knowledge, and (b) participants in the age group 25 to 30 years scored lower in domestic violence knowledge. Second, there was no significant relationship between the criterion variables and perceived comfort. Third, there was a significant relationship between the criterion variables (domestic violence training and previous history of domestic violence) and competency level. Participants who indicated having training in domestic violence had a higher the level of competency than participants who indicated having no training in domestic violence. Participants who indicated having a previous history of domestic violence had a higher level of competency than participants who indicated not having a previous history of domestic violence.

Implications for counselors, educators, and future research are discussed.