Literature Review On Counseling Practice In Certain Ethnic Populations

The reasons why I have chosen this set of articles for review is because of the work I am interested in doing as a professional, the type of theory/therapy that I would like to incorporate in my work and to learn more information on the specific topics. I have chosen articles on corporal punishment, prevention of adolescent depression, and relationship quality/depression in couples because of how prevalent these issues are in certain ethnic populations. Also, I have chosen articles on Relational Cultural Theory and self-reflection in relation to self-esteem because of how beneficial these theories/therapies can be for clients.

Hugs, not hits: Warmth and spanking as predictors of child social competence.

This article explored the relationship that two different parenting behaviors, maternal warmth and maternal spanking, had on the development of a child’s behavior, specifically their aggressiveness and social competence. The study’s participants were ethnically diverse mothers from large urban cities across the United States, and their children were recruited for the study at birth. The study had found that maternal spanking was positively associated with children’s aggressive behaviors, but there was no association between maternal spanking and children’s social competence. Additionally, there was positive relationship between maternal warmth and children’s social competence, but there was no association between maternal warmth and children’s aggressive behaviors. This article may be relevant to my future professional practice because of how common corporal punishment is used in ethnic populations. In these certain populations, corporal punishment can lead to quick results such as getting a misbehaving child to be obedient in public. Likewise, these underrepresented populations may not be aware of the research done on corporal punishment and how it can negatively affect a child’s development. Experiencing corporal punishment as a child can lead to resentment towards parents and problematic behaviors as an adolescent. My ideal population to work with is adolescents from different ethnicities and races, so this article will be able to inform me on how this type of child rearing can have an affect on children growing up.

Preventing adolescent depression with the family check-up: Examining family conflict as a mechanism of change.

This article examined the effectiveness of the Family Check-Up (FCU) intervention on preventing symptoms in adolescent depression and family conflict, as well as how changes in family conflict may prolong the effects of FCU. The study’s participants were at-risk ethnically diverse urban middle school adolescents and their families. The study had found that the FCU intervention had significant effects for adolescent depression over the entirety of middle school and families showed improvement in curbing conflicts. The declining rate of family conflicts due to FCU, resulted in a decrease of symptoms in adolescent depression and problematic behaviors. This article may be relevant to my future professional practice because of how important family involvement and support from one’s family is for an adolescent with depressive symptoms. Likewise, this article is able to illustrate how issues at home can significantly affect an adolescent’s depression, where growing family conflict can inflate depression or it can reduce it when problems can be properly worked out. In attempting to counsel an adolescent with depression, it is critical to involve the family, understand how family issues may be contributing to the depression, and to guide/enable the family to work together to repair their conflicts.

Relational-cultural theory and reality therapy: A culturally responsive integrative framework.

This article introduces the integration of Relational-Cultural Theory (RCT) and Reality Therapy, in order to provide a more inclusive methodology for diverse clients. The similarities between the two, which includes the importance of having healthy relationships with others and wanting to build worthwhile connections, is what made the integration so straightforward. When it comes to diverse clients, choice theory in Reality therapy in addition to RCT’s focus on external factors such as racism, oppression, and privilege can aid counselors in empowering clients to learn how to choose efficient behaviors for their lives, while also being aware of major external factors that can limit their behaviors. This article may be relevant to my future professional practice because of how this theory and therapy are taking a more comprehensive approach in order to better cater to diverse clients. In integrating these concepts, there is a focus on enabling the client to choose more effective and efficient behaviors, which would allow the client to build better and more wholesome relationships with others. This takes a positive approach on counseling clients, which is one that I wish to incorporate in my future practice, as well as having the client understand that they are active participants in their behaviors and choices that they make in their daily lives.

Reflection versus self-reflection: Sources of self-esteem boost determine behavioral outcomes.

This article explored the difference between reflection and self-reflection on one’s behaviors and performance, although both are able to achieve high self-esteem. Reflection involves associating oneself with others who are successful, while self-reflection involved one’s own affirmation in themselves and no external association of other people. Individuals who improved their self-confidence through self-reflection had higher rates of competence and liking oneself, hence better performance in activities. However, reflection did not lead to better performance because it relied on other people’s success and had no effect on one’s own capabilities, skills, or motivations.

This article may be relevant to my future professional practice because of my own view on how influential self-reflection can be on one’s self-esteem and capabilities. Additionally, I thought that this article explained the difference between reflection and self-reflection very well, even if they both were able to change one’s self-esteem. The article was able to illustrate how confidence in oneself does have a remarkably different result on one’s efficacy and ability to complete tasks, whereas evaluating yourself in relation to another person’s accomplishments can only get you so far. It shows the importance of being able to acknowledge and understand your own abilities and self-worth, which can only be uncovered by looking inwards at yourself, which is essentially self-reflection.

Depression, relationship quality, and couples’ demand/withdraw and demand/submit sequential interactions.

This article explored the relationship of depression and relationship quality within couples and how they interacted with each other. The Demand/Withdraw interaction involves one partner demanding change, blaming, or accusing the other partner and in return, the accused partner would withdraw, become silent, or defensive. The Demand/Submit interaction involves the same types of demands from one partner but instead of withdrawing, the accused partner would respond by submitting, compiling, or surrendering to their partner’s demands. The study found that demanding behavior and receiving withdrawn/submissive behaviors were associated with decreases in relationship quality. As well, women’s depressive symptoms increased with demanding behavior, but men’s depressive symptoms did not. However, men’s depressive symptoms increased when women took on the demanding role and men responded with withdrawn behaviors.

This article may be relevant to my future professional practice because of my interest in couples counseling and how relationship quality can be affected by so many factors. This article was able to illustrate the ways that partners interact with each other and how it can lead to negative outcomes for one person or affect the relationship as a whole. Communication between couples can be influenced by who is in control in the relationship, how one responds to their partner or how one view’s their role in the relationship. These factors can greatly affect the quality of the relationship, and not many couples may be aware of it, which is something that can be seen, acknowledged, and worked on during counseling.