Counseling students\u27 attitudes and beliefs toward lgbtq individuals and relationships between psychosocial factors

Attitudes and beliefs influence how counselors practice. This study explored four psychosocial factors and their correlation to the attitudes of graduate counseling students\u27 (N = 28) toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) individuals. The four main psychosocial factors that were identified in previous research include knowledge level, religiosity, political affiliation, and previous experience with LGBTQ individuals. The hypothesis of this study was there are relationships between attitudes toward LGBTQ individuals and the aforementioned psychosocial factors. Students were invited to participate through emails sent by the Director of the Counseling Education program. The survey used to collect data included a demographics questionnaire and three scales. The findings did not show any significant correlations between knowledge level, religiosity, and political affiliation and attitudes. Personal relationships and attitudes could not be tested due to limitations of the study. These findings were not congruent with previous research