Degree Name

BS

Department

Psychology

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Defense Date

2020-03-09

Publication Date

2020-03-20

First Faculty Advisor

Stevan Lars Nielsen

Second Faculty Advisor

Sam Hardy

First Faculty Reader

Bruce Brown

Honors Coordinator

Bruce Brown

Keywords

counseling center, university, predictors, distress, Provo, Utah

Abstract

Brigham Young University’s on-campus counseling center keeps thorough archival data, including reports from the 45-item Outcome Questionnaire (OQ-45), which clients complete before each session. We attempted to address questions about who comes to therapy at the Counseling and Psychological Services center (CAPS), why they come, and how they fare. We hypothesized that seven presenting concerns (distress due to perfectionism; confusion about religious beliefs and values; marital/dating and relationship concerns; racial, ethnic or gender discrimination; sexual concerns; sexual orientation or identity; and pornography) would predict clients’ initial overall distress score on the OQ-45 (hypothesis 1), clients’ final overall distress score on the OQ-45 (hypothesis 2), and the change in overall distress score between the first and final OQ-45 administrations (hypothesis 3). Multiple regression analyses with 6,369 client records revealed widespread statistical significance but small effect sizes. Two predictors stood out among the seven: perfectionism and confusion about religious beliefs or values. The impacts of university culture and other factors are discussed. More research is needed to examine CAPS archival data more thoroughly.

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/uht0136

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS