The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between just-world beliefs, attitudes toward women, blame attribution, the personal abuse history of the participants, demographic variables, and counselor attitudes toward battered women. The independent variables in this study were just-world beliefs, attitudes toward women, blame attribution, and the personal abuse history, age, and gender of the participants. The dependent variable in this study was counselor attitudes toward battered women.
A sample of 478 professional members of the American Counseling Association completed the survey instrument. A non-hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to answer the following research question: “To what extent are just-world beliefs, attitudes toward women, blame attribution, personal abuse history, and demographic variables related to counselor attitudes toward battered women?” Results revealed blame attribution, attitudes toward women, age, personal abuse history, gender, and just-world beliefs combined to significantly predict counselor attitudes toward battered women. The independent variables combined explained 11.4% of the variance in the dependent variable. Blame attribution alone explained 9.9% of the variance and the other variables alone each explained less than 1% of the variance.
Participants in this study who held more traditional attitudes toward women tended to be more accepting of domestic violence. In addition, participants in this study who placed more blame on battered women tended to be more accepting of domestic violence.
Findings support the importance of domestic violence training in counselor education programs and in continuing education programs. In addition, the findings highlight the importance of an increased level of personal insight among counselors regarding their attitudes toward battered women and, in particular, their blame attribution. The research provides a discussion of demographic characteristics of the sample along with discussions of the implications of this study and directions for future research.