Child development and family science faculty Tom Stone Carlson and Christie McGeorge, along with graduate student Monica Rock, will have an article published in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. The article is titled “Does Affirmative Training Matter? Assessing Couple and Family Therapy Students’ Beliefs About Sexual Orientation and Their Level of Affirmative Training.”

The study examined couple and family therapy students' beliefs about sexual orientation, their self-reported competency working with lesbian, gay and bisexual clients and the level of affirmative training students received in their couple and family therapy programs. One hundred and ninety students from accredited couple and family therapy programs completed the study.

“While participants reported feeling only somewhat competent to work with lesbian, gay and bisexual clients and less than half reported receiving any training on affirmative therapy, the majority of the participants did appear to hold positive attitudes toward the clients,” McGeorge said. “The results support the literature arguing for couple and family therapy programs to include specific training on affirmative therapy practices, as the level of affirmative training was directly related to participants' self-reported clinical competency working with lesbian, gay and bisexual clients.”