Abstract
This study compared levels of professional competency working with self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) clients among graduates and field experience students of Christian and nonreligious-affiliated CACREP-accredited addiction counseling programs. Applicants completed an instrument to measure the dependent variables of awareness, knowledge, and skills to work with LGB clients. The sample consisted of 84 master’s students in field experience and unlicensed counselors within 2 years of graduation. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to test the hypotheses. Participants from nonreligious-affiliated addiction counseling programs scored higher on the awareness (M = 68.82, M = 63.03), knowledge (M = 50.22, M = 35.88), and skills (M = 43.20, M = 37.91) subscales than participants from Christian-affiliated programs. These differences were found to be statistically significant at p < .000.
