Korean school counselors’ counseling competencies and advocacy activities for LGBTQ+ youth: a latent profile analysis

Abstract This study examined how LGBTQ+ counseling competencies and advocacy activities co-occur among Korean school counselors using a person-centered approach. Using latent profile analysis with 259 participants, five distinct counselor profiles were identified: Distant, Passive, Average, Active, and Advocacy-oriented. Multinomial logistic regression showed that LGBTQ+ education exposure and counseling experience with LGBTQ+ clients were the strongest predictors of more engaged profiles, whereas general counseling experience was not significant. Counselors’ sexual orientation and gender identity differentiated less engaged from more engaged profiles, and school level was associated with membership in the Advocacy-oriented group. The findings indicate that competencies and advocacy are closely interconnected, consistent with the multicultural and social justice counseling competencies (Ratts et al., 2016) framework. The study provides profile-specific training recommendations based on these distinct counselor profiles. Implications for counselor education, research, and practice, as well as study limitations, are also discussed.