School Counselors and Multicultural Counseling Competencies: Are We as Competent as We Think We Are?

Abstract

We investigated the relationship between self-reported multicultural competence and social issues awareness among school counselors and raters’ assessment of multicultural orientation skills (cultural humility and cultural comfort) using a recorded mock counseling session. Results revealed a positive correlation between multicultural competence and cultural comfort. However, findings demonstrated overestimated self-reports of multicultural competence compared to raters’ assessment of cultural humility. We discuss overreliance on self-report of multicultural competence and address implications for further research.

Keywords

multicultural counseling competence cultural comfort cultural humility school counseling

Students of color will become the majority population within the U.S. education system in the next 2 decades (Harris et al., 2018). With a documented lack of culturally responsive P–12 services (Hussar & Bailey, 2014), there is a greater need for multicultural awareness and the assessment of perceived competence of school counselors (Cannon, 2010; Harris et al., 2018). School counselors are situated specifically to help support students’ academic, postsecondary, and social/emotional needs by advocating for multiculturally responsive educational systems that promote access for all students (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2021; Tadlock-Marlo et al., 2013). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between multicultural counseling competence (MCC) and a skill-based assessment of multicultural orientation (MCO) factors. Further, this study examined potential moderators of this relationship and investigated the relationship between school counselors’ awareness of social issues and skills-based assessment of MCO factors, including cultural humility and cultural comfort.

Multicultural Counseling Competencies

The multicultural movement stemmed from scholars highlighting that modern counseling practices were embedded within Western cultural values and that ethical implications of treating culturally diverse clients needed to be addressed (Sue et al., 1982). As a result, Sue et al. (1982) made several recommendations for training and practice, one of which was the incorporation of the MCC model. The multicultural counseling competencies (MCCs) delineate three domains of competence: multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skill. A culturally competent counselor: (a) actively pursues understanding and awareness of their values, beliefs, behaviors, and biases; (b) works to gain knowledge and understanding about their clients’ cultural background; (c) understands how differing and overlapping cultural identities impact the counseling relationship; and (d) develops skills and culturally responsive interventions that are appropriate for various populations (Sue & Sue, 1999). After the creation of the model, literature related to the assessment of MCC training, practice, and supervision began to flourish (Pope-Davis et al., 2003).

As a result of the highlighted attention to multicultural competence, the MCC model was endorsed by the Association of Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) in 1991 and adopted in 1997 by the American Association for Counseling and Development (AACD, now known as the American Counseling Association [ACA]; Tomlinson-Clarke, 2013). The AACD’s endorsement of the MCCs led to several changes in the way those in the profession conceptualized and trained counselors as they prepared to serve diverse populations (Chae et al., 2006; Harley et al., 2002). The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) endorsed the MCCs in 2001. CACREP mandated that training programs include a multicultural course in their core curriculum to highlight the significance of moving away from a monocultural perspective of counseling and training services (CACREP, 2001). Recently, the MCCs were revised to the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCCs) to reflect a more comprehensive understanding of multiculturalism, intersectionality, and counselors’ responsibility to promote equity through social justice advocacy (Ratts et al., 2016). Since the inception of MCC, the theoretical framework has been widely accepted and increasingly researched in the mental health profession; however, little empirical support addresses the new standards and the assessment of school counselors related to MCC and social justice advocacy.

Empirical Literature on School Counselor Multicultural Competence

The adoption of MCCs in counseling led to thriving research programs on MCCs in training, practice, and supervision (Pope-Davis et al., 2003). Replicating research in other areas, early work documented that school counselors view themselves as having high levels of MCCs (C. C. Holcomb-McCoy, 2005; Owens et al., 2010); however, for reasons including overreliance on self-report, construct validity, and social desirability, researchers question the accuracy of self-report of MCCs (Davis et al., 2018; Worthington et al., 2007). Some studies found that multicultural training (e.g., graduate coursework and continuing education) increased self-reports of MCCs (Hayden-Davis, 2006). However, measurement of the same constructs broken up by multicultural terminology, awareness, racial identity development, and knowledge did not replicate when assessed by subscale (C. C. Holcomb-McCoy, 2001a). Similarly, one might expect years of experience to predict greater self-reported MCCs and some researchers did find such a relationship when comparing years of experience to self-efficacy (Owens et al., 2010), but others did not when controlling for social desirability (DeCino et al., 2018). Although some of the findings listed above are encouraging, results might be misleading when constructs are not separated by subscale to assess each domain. Moreover, the accuracy of self-report could be in question when scholars do not control for social desirability. Finally, self-reports of MCCs do not necessarily correspond with measures of demonstrated competence assessed by outside raters (Guzman et al., 2013), and limited research has documented that MCCs, as a stable quality of the school counselor, are correlated to better student outcomes or skills related to working with ethnically diverse students (Tao et al., 2015).

Values for Multiculturalism Expressed by School Counselors

The MCCs were developed to infuse values and appreciation for diverse cultural identities and include knowledge and skills related to working with diverse clients into the training structures of the mental health profession (Sue et al., 1982). However, scholars have struggled to effectively compare self-reported multicultural competencies with improved student outcomes (e.g., improved mental health and academic success) or therapeutic variables associated with stronger working alliance (e.g., cultural humility and cultural comfort). The multicultural orientation (MCO) framework is a complementary theoretical model that might help bridge this gap between theory and evidence-based practices within school counselor training and research.

The MCO framework includes three constructs theorized to help cultivate a stronger working alliance: cultural comfort, cultural opportunity, and cultural humility (J. J. Owen et al., 2011). The authors of the MCO framework posited that culturally humble counselors seek to understand and take advantage of cultural opportunities that arise in session while simultaneously creating a comfortable environment to explore various cultural identities of the client (J. J. Owen et al., 2011). The MCO language also focuses on orienting the school counselor to the student and the cultural processes that may emerge within a session. To assess skill level in this study, we focus on two of the three MCO constructs (i.e., cultural comfort and cultural humility) and on social justice advocacy. Together, social justice, MCCs, and the MCO draw on similar values and can help assess the multicultural skill level of school counselors.

Cultural Comfort

The first construct measured in this study was cultural comfort. Cultural comfort represents the ease and seamlessness of the school counselor’s ability to discuss multicultural factors with students and is correlated with stronger working alliances (J. J. Owen et al., 2011; Slone & Owen, 2015). A study conducted by J. Owen et al. (2017) examined the impact of cultural comfort on premature termination. Findings suggested that clients who rated their counselor higher in cultural comfort stayed in counseling longer and reported stronger working alliances (J. Owen et al., 2017). Other research has supported that lower levels of comfort lead to poorer counseling outcomes. For example, researchers have found that White counselor trainees have lower levels of comfort working with clients of color compared to their counterparts (Gunter, 2002), and this has been found to predict unilateral termination of counseling (J. Owen et al., 2017).

Cultural Humility

Cultural humility was the second construct in the MCO framework used to assess MCCs in the current study. Cultural humility involves taking an other-oriented approach to addressing the cultural factors of the student and maintaining an accurate assessment of one’s abilities and limitations regarding cultural biases (Davis et al., 2018). Past research has shown support for the MCO hypothesis that greater cultural humility leads to stronger counseling relationships (i.e., stronger therapeutic alliances) and better therapeutic outcomes (i.e., completion of treatment, reported satisfaction with counseling; Hook et al., 2013). Research also showed that clients who rated their counselor as less culturally humble also reported counseling as less effective (Hook et al., 2013, 2016; Owen et al., 2014, 2016).

Social Justice Advocacy

The final construct assessed in the study as a complement to self-reports of MCCs and observer assessment of MCO was social justice advocacy, as measured by a school counselor’s level of social issues awareness. Social justice is defined as valuing fairness and equity in resources, rights, and the treatment of individuals from marginalized groups (Constantine, 2007). Accordingly, advocacy is an action that follows the fundamental values of social justice and is used to promote systemic change (Cohen et al., 2001). Awareness of social justice issues, such as the impact of social and political inequalities that affect students with marginalized identities, is particularly crucial to the advocacy efforts of school counselors (Nilsson et al., 2011).

Although the need for social justice advocacy and awareness in P–12 education is well established, empirical studies on school counselors’ actual advocacy practices and level of awareness are limited (Ratts & Hutchins, 2009). Early work documented that personal attitudes and behaviors of the school counselor impact their level of social justice advocacy (Parikh et al., 2011; Steele et al., 2014). Researchers also found that school counselors reported higher social justice advocacy scores after training focused on social justice and advocacy (Crook et al., 2015). Although these findings are helpful, neither measures advocacy awareness or the impact school counselors’ MCCs and social issues awareness have on demonstrating counseling skills. The present study sought to address this gap by assessing the impact of school counselors’ social issues awareness and MCCs on MCO constructs as measured by a recorded mock counseling session.

The Present Study

Given the lack of research comparing self-report scores to observer assessment of MCCs in school counseling, the present study focused on a comparative analysis of self-report and rater assessment of MCCs and related constructs. Participants were asked to complete self-report measures of MCCs and social justice advocacy, and to respond to a clinical prompt using audio recording. The audio recordings were rated by a panel of five clinicians of color who evaluated participants’ cultural humility and cultural comfort (Gainor & Constantine, 2002; Lee & Tracey, 2008). We then compared participants’ self-reported MCCs and social justice advocacy scores to the raters’ assessment of cultural comfort and cultural humility using the participants’ audio recording (Gainor & Constantine, 2002; Lee & Tracey, 2008).

Method

Our study tested three hypotheses. The first hypothesis was that participants’ self-perceived MCCs would be related to raters’ assessment of cultural humility and cultural comfort. Although empirical support is mixed regarding the validity of MCC self-reports (e.g., Drinane et al., 2016), we expected participants’ self-perceived MCCs to show some degree of alignment with MCO constructs evaluated by raters.

The second hypothesis was that social issues awareness would predict MCO constructs above and beyond self-reported MCCs. We expected social issues awareness to predict MCO as evaluated by raters more strongly than self-rated MCCs because the social justice advocacy measure focuses on awareness and behaviors that generally align with a commitment to social justice. This prediction also aligns with empirical work that suggests self-reported MCCs are not behaviorally anchored and may align more with cultural self-efficacy than with an actual skill (Worthington et al., 2000).

The third hypothesis was that school counselor experience would moderate the relationship between MCCs and MCO constructs, such that the relationship would be stronger at higher levels of experience. This hypothesis is based on the Dunning-Kruger effect, which involves the tendency of individuals at lower levels of experience to overestimate their level of competence (Dunning, 2011). Initial research has extended this effect to counselors and found that less experienced/trained counselors have difficulty accurately assessing their competence level regarding skill development and ethical decision-making (Lepkowski et al., 2009; Luke et al., 2017).

Participants

To determine appropriate sample size, we conducted G power analyses for a moderate effect size of .15, an alpha of .05, estimated power of .80, and with two predictors; results suggested sampling at least 77 participants for regression analyses (J. Cohen, 1988; Faul et al., 2009). We recruited participants through the ASCA Scene online community, the ACA community webpage, professional networking websites, and personal communication with school counselors, school counseling graduate students, and school counselor educators. The study included current school counseling graduate students and practicing/previously credentialed school counselors in the United States.

The final sample used in this study consisted of 80 school counselors (69 women; 10 men and 1 male to female). On average, participants were 38.8 years old (SD = 11.6). Regarding sexual orientation, 92.6% identified as straight, 2.5% as bisexual, 1.3% as queer, 1.3% as gay, 1.3% as questioning, and 1% another orientation (e.g., pansexual). Regarding chronic illness/disability, 82.5% reported they did not have a current disability, 6.3% reported another chronic illness/disability (e.g., chronic pain), 3.8% indicated chronic medical health (e.g., HIV and diabetes), 3.8% psychological/psychiatric, 2.5% hearing, and 1.3% mobility. The sample was racially diverse considering that the ASCA 2020 membership consisted of 76% White school counselors (ASCA, 2020) compared to the study sample, in which participants’ reported race/ethnicity as 52.5% European American/White, 27.5% African American/Black, 10.0% Latinx/Hispanic, 5.0% Asian American/Asian, 1.3% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 1.3% Multiracial with African American/Black identity, and 2.6% another race (e.g., Multiracial without African American/Black identity). Table 1 shows the full participant demographic breakdown.

Table 1.

Demographic Data for Participants.

Variable	n	%
Gender identity
Woman	69	86.3
Man	10	12.5
MTF	1	1.3
Race/ethnicity
European American/White	42	52.5
African American/Black	22	27.5
Latinx/Hispanic	8	10.0
Asian American/Asian	4	5.0
Another race/ethnicity	2	2.6
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	1	1.3
Multiracial: African/Black identity	1	1.3
Sexual identity
Straight/heterosexual	74	92.6
Bisexual	2	2.5
Questioning	1	1.3
Queer	1	1.3
Gay	1	1.3
Another orientation	1	1.0
Chronic illness/disability
No disability	66	82.5
Another illness/disability	5	6.3
Psychological/psychiatric	3	3.8
Chronic/other medical health	3	3.8
Hearing	2	2.5
Mobility	1	1.3

Note. MTF = male to female.

Most participants identified as certified school counselors (80.0%, n = 64) and fewer identified as school counseling graduate students (20.0%, n = 16). Of the certified school counselors, most participants identified master’s degree as their highest degree earned (55.0%, n = 44) and the majority were from a CACREP-accredited program (72.5%, n = 58) in the Southeast region (47.5%, n = 38). Participants’ years of professional school counseling experience ranged from 1 to 41 years (M = 10.21, SD = 8.69). The number of multicultural courses varied from zero to six (M = 2.70, SD = 1.14) and the number of multicultural workshops from one to more than 20 (M = 3.51, SD = 1.76) Tables 2 and 3 show the full breakdown.

Table 2.

Participant Multicultural Training.

Variable	n	%
Number of multicultural courses
One	46	57.5
Two	17	21.3
Three	8	10.0
More than four	4	5.0
Four	3	3.8
Zero	2	2.5
Number of multicultural workshops
Two	16	20.0
Zero	15	18.8
More than four	15	18.8
Three	12	15.0
Four	12	15.0
One	9	11.8
Self-reported multicultural percentile
75th percentile	43	53.8
50th percentile	24	30.0
100th percentile	9	11.3
25th percentile	4	5.0

Table 3.

Participants Professional Data.

Variable	n	%	M(SD)
Highest earned degree
Master’s	44	55.0
Bachelor’s	13	16.3
Specialist	12	15.0
Doctorate	10	12.5
Another degree	1	1.3
Professional identity
Professional school counselor	64	80.0
School counseling trainee	16	20.0
Years of experience			10.21(8.69)
CACREP accreditation
Yes	58	72.5
No	13	16.3
Unsure	9	11.3
Training region
SACES	38	47.5
NCACES	16	20.0
NARACES	12	15.0
WACES	11	13.8
RMACES	3	3.8

Note. CACREP = Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs; SACES = Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision; NCACES = North Central Association for Counselor Education and Supervision; NARACES = North Atlantic Region Association for Counselor Education and Supervision; WACES = Western Association for Counselor Education and Supervision; RMACES = Rocky Mountain Association for Counselor Education and Supervision.

Measures

The present study included a demographic questionnaire, an audio recording, and four measures assessing MCC, social justice advocacy, cultural humility, and cultural comfort. Participants completed the demographic questionnaire, audio recording, and two self-report measures assessing MCC and social justice advocacy. The raters used the audio recording to complete scales assessing the participants’ cultural humility and cultural comfort. We fully describe each measure below.

Demographic Questionnaire

The demographic questionnaire was completed by participants and collected information including participants’ ethnic identity, gender identity, age, sexual orientation, and ability. Participants also indicated whether they were trained in a CACREP-accredited program, their training region (i.e., North Central, North Atlantic, Southeast, Rocky Mountain, and West), how many multicultural courses they took as part of their program, and how many multicultural trainings they have attended (e.g., at conferences or other continuing education events). Participants also indicated whether they were graduate students or credentialed professionals. If they indicated being a credentialed professional, they also disclosed year of graduation, years of professional experience as a school counselor, and highest degree earned.

Multicultural Competencies

To assess MCCs, participants completed the 32-item Multicultural Counseling Competence and Training Survey-Revised (MCCTS-R; Holcomb-McCoy & Day-Vines, 2004). The MCCTS-R is a revised version of the initial scale developed by Holcomb-McCoy and Myers (1999) to assess the perceived multicultural competence of professional counselors based on the AMCD multicultural competencies. The revised survey was created to reflect the language used by school counselors and is a behavioral-based measure created to assess school counselors’ perceived multicultural competence (C. Holcomb-McCoy, 2001b). For example, the word client was replaced by the term student. An analysis of the revised items on the MCCTS-R revealed the following subscales: Multicultural Knowledge, Multicultural Terminology, and Multicultural Awareness (Holcomb-McCoy & Day-Vines, 2004). The MCCTS-R’s 32-items are rated on a 4-point, Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not competent) to 4 (extremely competent). Higher scores reflect higher self-perceived competence. A sample item is, “I can list at least three barriers that prevent ethnic minority students from using counseling services.” Content and construct validity have been demonstrated through factor analysis yielding the three factors (i.e., Multicultural Knowledge, Awareness, and Terminology) related to total MCCs (Holcomb-McCoy & Day-Vines, 2004). The subscales showed evidence of internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of .95 for Multicultural Knowledge; .85 for Multicultural Awareness; and .97 for Multicultural Terminology (Holcomb-McCoy & Day-Vines, 2004). For the present study, the Cronbach’s alpha was .95 for the total scale; .96 for Multicultural Terminology; .94 for Multicultural Knowledge; and .89 for Multicultural Awareness.

Social Justice Advocacy

Social justice advocacy was assessed by having participants complete the 21-item Social Issues Advocacy (SIA) scale developed to measure social justice advocacy attitudes and behaviors (Nilsson et al., 2011). Items are rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The SIA has four subscales: Political and Social Justice Advocacy, Political Awareness, Social Issues Awareness, and Confronting Discrimination. A total score can also be calculated, and higher total scores reflect greater social issues advocacy attitudes and behaviors. For this study’s analysis, we used the Social Issues Awareness subscale, which consists of four items. The SIA has been used with counseling trainees and practicing school counselors (Beer et al., 2012; Feldwisch & Whiston, 2015). A sample item is “Societal forces (e.g., public policies, resource allocation, human rights) affect individuals’ education performance.” The SIA demonstrated initial evidence of construct validity because the scores of the SIA scale were associated with another advocacy measure, multicultural empathy, and political interest (Nilsson et al., 2011). The Social Issues Awareness subscale showed evidence of internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of .91. For the present study, the Cronbach’s alpha was .89 for the Social Issues Awareness subscale.

Cultural Humility

To assess the participants’ cultural humility, raters completed the 12-item Cultural Humility Scale (CHS; Hook et al., 2013). The scale has two subscales addressing positive and negative cultural humility and can also be scored using a total score, with higher scores indicating higher cultural humility. For this study, we adapted the instructions to address school counseling (e.g., changing “counselor” to “school counselor” and “my” to “student”), similar to the language change made in the MCCTS-R. Observers rated the items on a 5-point Likert-type scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The instructions read: “Please think of the school counselor. Using the scale below, please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements about the school counselor. Regarding core aspects of the student’s background, the school counselor…” Example items include “was considerate” and “was a know-it-all.” The CHS demonstrated initial evidence of construct validity because the scores of the CHS were associated with other measures of cultural competence, general competencies, and counseling outcomes (Hook et al., 2013). The CHS demonstrated strong internal consistency for the measure with a Cronbach’s alpha of .93 (Hook et al., 2013). For the present study, the Cronbach’s alpha was .95.

Participants’ cultural humility was also assessed using a single item self-report question in the demographic questionnaire asking them to rank their multicultural competence by identifying their percentile (e.g., 25th, 50th, 75th, and 100th) compared to other credentialed school counselors. This methodology was adapted from a similar study assessing school counselors’ use of ethical decision-making models and the ability to accurately self-assess skills (Luke et al., 2017).

Cultural Comfort

We used the 10-item Cultural Comfort Scale (CCS; Slone & Owen, 2015) to have raters assess the participants’ cultural comfort. Since its initial creation, the scale has been adapted to address various counseling settings (Kivlighan et al., 2019). For the purposes of this study, we adapted the scale for the rater to assess the school counselor’s level of comfort addressing culturally related topics. The measure has two subscales: positive and negative levels of comfort. The scale can also be total scored, with higher scores indicating higher levels of cultural comfort. The CCS is a 10-item measure rated on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The instructions read: “Overall, how do you think the school counselor felt in session?” and sample items include “comfortable,” “awkward,” and “nervous.” The CCS demonstrated strong internal consistency for the measure with a Cronbach’s alpha of .94 (Slone & Owen, 2015). For the present study, the Cronbach’s alpha was .95.

Procedures

Recruitment material posted on various platforms described earlier included a brief description of the project and rationale for the study, University affiliation, ability to withdraw, contact information, and a link to the survey. The order of the study procedures is explained in the sections to follow.

Self-Report Assessment

After providing consent, participants completed the demographic questionnaire and self-report surveys, including the MCCTS-R and the SIA scale.

To measure multicultural orientation skills, school counselors completed a mock counseling session exercise modeled after Gainor and Constantine (2002) and Lee and Tracey (2008). Participants were asked to imagine that they were the school counselor of a 16-year-old Black male student whom they were about to meet for the first time. Participants were provided with a vignette in which the 16-year-old Black male student was matriculating through a predominately White suburban school setting. The student was being referred to counseling because of challenges adjusting to his new school, social isolation from his peers, and mildly depressed affect (Gainor & Constantine, 2002). The case provided an array of cultural factors to consider in the formulation of a response. After reading the vignette, participants were directed to call a Google Voice number and asked to provide a 1-minute voicemail recording of how they would respond to the student’s presenting concerns and how they planned to intervene. Participants also provided a four-digit identification code that would later be used to merge participant data with the rater assessment.

Rater Assessment

We had five graduate-level students of color with dissimilar and similar aspects (i.e., master’s in counseling, doctoral students in counselor education and counseling psychology programs, differing ethnicity, and varying age) serve as raters. They listened to each of the audio recordings and rated the participants’ cultural humility and cultural comfort using the CHS (Hook et al., 2013) and CCS (Slone & Owen, 2015). This approach is based on lay-coding methods that rely on the intuitions of a larger set of raters rather than coding utilizing a rigid and narrow set of themes based on the researcher’s definition and potential biases (Waldinger et al., 2004). Furthermore, studies have shown initial support for the reliability of rating emotion variables using multiple raters (Rosenthal & Rosnow, 1991; Waldinger et al., 2004). We calculated intraclass correlation coefficient estimates and their 95% confidence intervals based on a mean-rating, consistent agreement, two-way mixed effect model; our results showed excellent reliability among the five raters for cultural humility, ICC = .95 with a 95% confidence interval from .94 to .97, F(79, 4661) = 21.0, p < .001; and cultural comfort, ICC = .95 with a 95% confidence interval from .93 to .96, F(79, 3871) = 18.9, p < .001 (Koo & Li, 2016).

Results

We began by examining whether any patterns occurred in missing data. Less than 3% of data were missing per item once we pulled data for participants that completed up to the voicemail portion of the survey (n = 80). Next, we conducted Little’s Missing Completely at Random test to determine whether we could proceed with imputation without introducing bias (Schlomer et al., 2010). The test was not significant (p = 1.00), so we proceeded with expectation maximization to impute the missing data. We also screened the data for potential violation of assumptions, including multicollinearity (VIF = 1.01), normality (i.e., skewness and kurtosis), multivariate outliers (i.e., Mahalanobis), linearity, homoscedasticity using scatter plots, and independence of residuals. We found no problems with outliers or normality (i.e., multivariate probability above .001), and all values were within an acceptable range for skewness and kurtosis (i.e., between −1 and +1).

Primary Analysis

To test the first hypothesis that MCCs and MCO constructs would be related, we ran a correlation analysis. All bivariate correlations, means, and standard deviations are displayed in Table 4. Self-reported multicultural competence was not correlated with cultural humility. However, multicultural competence was positively and moderately correlated with cultural comfort (r = .27, p = .016). Cultural comfort was also positively and moderately correlated to multicultural knowledge (r = .27, p = .015) and multicultural awareness (r = .26, p = .021). All other correlations are reported in Table 4.

Table 4.

Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations for Study Constructs.

S. No.		M	SD	1	2	3	4	5
1	Cultural comfort	34.4	7.01
2	Cultural humility	39.6	8.21	.73**
3	Multicultural awareness	30.5	3.99	.26*	.21
4	Multicultural knowledge	53.0	9.59	.27*	.080	.70**
5	Multicultural terminology	13.9	1.96	.081	.015	.48**	.43**
6	Social issues awareness	18.2	2.06	.098	.22*	.20	.039	.24*

Note. * p < .05; ** p < .01.

Our second hypothesis was that social justice advocacy would predict coded cultural humility and cultural comfort above and beyond MCCs. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a series of hierarchical regression analyses in which MCCs were entered in Step 1, and then social issues awareness was entered in Step 2 (see Table 5). With cultural comfort as the dependent variable, MCCs predicted 7.2% of the variance in Step 1 (R² = .072, p = .016), and social issues awareness did not predict any additional variance in Step 2 (R² = .004, p = .54). With cultural humility as the dependent variable, MCCs did not predict cultural humility in Step 1 (R² = .012, p = .32), and social issues awareness did not predict cultural humility in Step 2 (R² = .045, p = .059).

Table 5.

Hierarchical Linear Regression Analyses for Cultural Humility and Cultural Comfort.

Step	Construct	b	SE	β	P	R²Δ	F	p
Cultural humility
Step 1	Constant	165	32.9		<.001	.012	.99	.32
Step 1	MCC	.32	.33	.11	.32			.32
Step 2	Constant	95.7	48.7		.053	.045	2.34	.059
	MCC	.25	.32	.087	.44
	SIA	4.23	2.21	.21	.059
Cultural comfort
Step 1	Constant	105	27.3		<.001	.072	6.08	.016
Step 1	MCC	.67	.27	.27	.016			.016
Step 2	Constant	86.1	41.4		.041	.004	3.21	.54
	MCC	.65	.27	.26	.020
	SIA	1.15	1.88	.067	.54

Note. MCCs = multicultural counseling competencies; SIA = social issues awareness.

The third hypothesis was that experience as a school counselor would amplify the relationship between MCCs and coded MCO constructs. To test this hypothesis, we conducted parallel moderation analyses using the Hayes’ PROCESS Macro on SPSS (Hayes, 2013). The interaction term was not significant, with no moderation found between MCCs and MCO, as zero lay between the confidence intervals for both cultural humility 95% CI (−2.45, 1.30), t = −.61, p = .54 and cultural comfort 95% CI (−1.98, 1.17), t = −.51, p = .61. Thus, Hypothesis 3 was not supported.

Discussion

Scholars have made several calls to the profession regarding moving beyond reliance on self-report to assess multicultural counseling competence; however, few studies within the counseling literature investigate school counselors’ MCCs beyond self-report (C. C. Holcomb-McCoy, 2005; Worthington et al., 2007). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between multicultural competence and a skill-based assessment of multicultural orientation factors. This study examined potential moderators of this relationship. Last, this study investigated the relationship between school counselors’ awareness of social issues and skills-based assessment of multicultural orientation factors.

Findings from this study provide partial support that the MCCs and MCO framework are related to one another. MCC was positively correlated with cultural comfort, such that as a school counselor’s self-report of MCCs increased, so did their observed assessment of cultural comfort. This finding aligns with previous studies’ findings that self-reported MCC scales measure self-efficacy (i.e., confidence and comfort) for engaging in multicultural dialogue rather than assessing actual competence (Constantine & Ladany, 2001; Ottavi et al., 1994; Tao et al., 2015). Our results converge with evidence that self-reported MCCs reflect confidence (i.e., comfort) engaging in multicultural conversations, but more work is needed to assess actual skill or performance (Worthington et al., 2007). Namely, we found that self-reported MCCs were associated with coded cultural comfort. This study was the first to demonstrate the association using evaluators’ perceptions of school counselors’ cultural comfort. An essential next step might be to explore the indicators that helped coders identify variability in comfort.

Self-reported MCCs did not correlate with coded cultural humility. Although null findings are difficult to interpret (Greenwald, 1975), null findings pervade the literature on MCCs. After decades, no known studies have linked self-reported MCCs (as a counselor effect) to better counseling outcomes in ACA-affiliated journals (Placeres, 2020). The problem with self-report measures has become well known within counseling literature, such that other studies have suggested that the Dunning and Kruger effect could help explain the issue with self-report (Dunning et al., 2003; Lepowski et al., 2009; Luke et al., 2017). The Dunning and Kruger effect suggests that individuals base their perceptions of their performance on their opinion of the skill rather than an assessment of actual skill, or in this case, a way of approaching multicultural dialogue (Dunning et al., 2003). Based on our findings, school counselors generally reported having high levels of multicultural competence (53.8% self-reported being in the 75^th percentile of MCCs) but generally had lower scores in cultural humility as evaluated by the raters. Recent work applying the Dunning and Kruger theory to counseling has indicated that counselors have a difficult time evaluating their competence, and the results from this study are consistent with these findings when comparing self-reported MCCs percentile rank with raters’ assessment of cultural humility (Lepkowski et al., 2009; Luke et al., 2017).

Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research

The present study had several potential limitations. First, the sample was gathered online and no incentive was offered, so there is some potential for selection bias, given that school counselors with a higher interest in multiculturalism might have been more likely to complete the survey. Thus, a helpful future approach might be to conduct a similar study by identifying several school counseling programs and attempting to assess all or any of the students within the training program to see if results replicate using a different sampling method.

Second, our study focused on a vignette and a 1-minute mock counseling session recording as a way of sampling school counselors’ current level of skill. The vignette increased internal validity because all school counselors responded to the same content, but the disadvantage was that it did not match the conditions of all school counseling settings and demographics. Some school counselors may have advanced skills that are contextualized to forming trusting relationships with students and cannot be demonstrated in the time constraints of a 1-minute recording. Coding school counselor behavior within the first few sessions might be a more contextually valid way to assess school counselor skills, so these results should be viewed tentatively until they have been replicated across different methods of studying the counseling process.

Third, although MCCTS-R has strong reliability and construct validity, it only measures two of the three MCC constructs (awareness and knowledge). Researchers in future studies may consider using measures that align with the MSJCCs and assess social justice and MCC skill in school counseling (e.g., Multicultural School Counseling Behavior Scale; Greene, 2018).

Fourth, our research sample was diverse: Considering that 76% of ASCA’s school counseling professional membership is White (ASCA, 2020), reflecting the broader field, more than half of our sample consisted of White participants. Exploring whether the results of this study replicate in samples of school counselors with marginalized identities is important. Future research could examine various potential moderators (e.g., ethnicity, geographic location, and training).

Last, this initial study used a cross-sectional, correlational design to examine the association between MCCs and social justice advocacy with coded MCO skills. However, future work could examine coded skills, as expressed in the early sessions of counseling, to see if MCO constructs influence subsequent trends in counseling. To date, most studies of MCO have relied primarily on client reports, which is a strength on the one hand, but on the other may be prone to mono-method bias, to the degree that outcomes are also measured with client reports (e.g., perceived symptom improvement). Similarly, a helpful approach might be to examine coded MCO skills across various turning points in a training program (e.g., baseline, after helping skills, beginning of practicum/internship, end of practicum/internship, and a year after graduation).

Implications for School Counselors and Training Programs

The present study has several implications for the school counseling profession. Substantial research supports the MCCs as necessary for a counselor’s ability to work with culturally diverse clients (Bidell, 2012; Chao, 2013; Constantine et al., 2002; C. C. Holcomb-McCoy, 2005; Owens et al., 2010); however, most of the studies within the school counseling literature rely on self-report measures to assess their efficacy (Greene, 2018). Thus, it is essential to understand complementary constructs related to counseling outcomes (i.e., cultural humility and cultural comfort) and how, taken together, the MCCs and MCO framework can potentially help inform school counselor training and bridge the theory to research gaps within MCCs and school counseling literature (Davis et al., 2018).

The results of this study provide preliminary evidence that self-reported MCCs are related to cultural comfort. This correlation has significant implications for the training and practice of school counseling. Although the MCO framework is in its early stages of development, initial support links MCO constructs with better counseling outcomes and various parts of the therapeutic process (Davis et al., 2018; J. J. Owen et al., 2011). Because self-reported MCCs and cultural comfort are correlated, one training recommendation would be to invest time in skill-building (e.g., flipped learning, role-plays, recorded student sessions, and interactive lectures) versus a traditional didactic lecture style during multicultural courses (Guzman et al., 2013) to increase comfort in implementing culturally relevant counseling skills. Providing school counselors and school counselor trainees with an opportunity to challenge their multicultural skill set by participating in training that is more interactive and representative of the changing P–12 demographics could help increase cultural comfort and the execution of multicultural skills beyond the incorporation of knowledge and awareness (J. J. Owen et al., 2011). Further, training could focus on how multicultural opportunities may present at various levels P–12 and address training needs at each level with a developmentally responsive approach (e.g., play therapy, sand tray, broaching, and Socratic dialogue).

In contrast, self-reported MCCs did not correlate with cultural humility. This finding could have several implications for school counselor education training programs. In line with prior theorizing, the teaching and training of multicultural competence in counselor education programs may not accurately translate into increased multicultural competence or demonstration of multicultural skills (Guzman et al., 2013). The assessment of multicultural skills is critical when we consider the ethical implications of gatekeeping and graduate student evaluation during clinical supervision (CACREP, 2016). One practical suggestion for training programs is to provide ongoing, formative feedback at different developmental milestones throughout the program and incorporate additional forms of evaluation for more accurate feedback. For example, gathering several data points would allow for assessment of multicultural skill development across different modalities (e.g., initial assessment during interviews, mock sessions, role-plays, written case conceptualizations, and MCO assessments). Another suggestion would be to train site supervisors to assess multicultural competence and cultural humility during practicum and internship (e.g., MCC measures, observations, other-oriented approach, questions, and curiosity about others). Without formative feedback on multicultural awareness and cultural humility during the early stages of professional development, school counselors may have difficulty asking for and receiving help when they are confronted with possible limitations to their training (Davis et al., 2018).

Further, although school counselors typically view themselves as multiculturally competent (C. C. Holcomb-McCoy, 2005; Owens et al., 2010), moving beyond reliance on self-report measures is critical in the assessment of counselor competence. Several studies report the use of MCO constructs (i.e., cultural humility, cultural comfort, and cultural opportunity) with better counseling outcomes (i.e., stronger working alliance, decreased unilateral termination, and higher levels of comfort and trust; Hook et al., 2013; Kivlighan et al., 2019). An important next step in infusing the MCO framework into school counselor training is including MCO skill (e.g., cultural comfort and cultural opportunity) development in the syllabi of multicultural courses and continuing multicultural skill development across the curriculum. Continuing education workshops that use MCCs and the MCO constructs also can help move the profession away from relying solely on perception to actual skill development and behavior.

Conclusion

For school counselors to provide culturally responsive services, they must demonstrate the attitudes/beliefs, knowledge, skills, and actions necessary to address a student’s worldview from a multicultural and social justice perspective (Ratts et al., 2016). The MCO framework is a complementary model to the MCCs and a way of bridging the gap between the perception of competence and actual skill development. As scholars and school counselors continue to challenge multiculturally insensitive educational environments, utilizing the MCO framework may be one way to bolster multiculturally accepting school environments. School counselors are positioned to continue advancing the implementation of multiculturally oriented behaviors across P–12 education to meet the changing demographics of the students they serve.

Footnotes

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biographies

Vanessa Placeres, PhD, is an assistant professor with the Department of Counseling and School Psychology at San Diego State University in San Diego, CA. Email: vplaceres@sdsu.edu

Don E. Davis, PhD, is an associate professor with the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA.

Nicolas Williams, PhD, was a doctoral student at the time of this study at Georgia State University.

shola shodiya-zeumault is a doctoral candidate in the counseling psychology program at Georgia State University.

Michelle Aiello is a doctoral candidate in the counseling psychology program at Georgia State University.

Giscard Petion is a doctoral student in the counselor education and practice program at Georgia State University.

E. C. M. Mason, PhD, is an assistant professor with the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services at Georgia State University.

References

American School Counselor Association (2020). Member demographics. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/getmedia/9c1d81ab-2484-4615-9dd7-d788a241beaf/member-demographics.pdf.

American School Counselor Association (2021). The school counselor and cultural diversity. ASCA Position Statements. https://schoolcounselor.org/Standards-Positions/Position-Statements/ASCA-Position-Statements/The-School-Counselor-and-Cultural-Diversity.

Beer

A. M.

Spanierman

L. B.

Greene

J. C.

Todd

N. R.

(2012). Counseling psychology trainees’’ perceptions of training and commitments to social justice. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 59(1), 120–133. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026325.

Bidell

M. P.

(2012). Examining school counseling students’ multicultural and sexual orientation competencies through a cross-specialization comparison. Journal of Counseling & Development, 90(2), 200–207. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1556-6676.2012.00025.x.

Cannon

E. P.

(2010). Measuring ethical sensitivity to racial and gender intolerance in schools. Journal of School Counseling, 8(20), 3–7. http://jsc.montana.edu/articles/v8n20.pdf.

Chae

M. H.

Foley

P. F.

Chae

S. Y.

(2006). Multicultural competence and training: An ethical responsibility. Counseling & Clinical Psychology Journal, 3(2), 71–80.

Chao

R. C. L.

(2013). Race/ethnicity and multicultural competence among school counselors: Multicultural training, racial/ethnic identity, and color‐blind racial attitudes. Journal of Counseling & Development, 91(2), 140–151. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2013.00082.x.

Cohen

D. J.

De la Vega

Watson

(Eds).). (2001). Advocacy for social justice: A global action and reflection guide. Kumarian.

Cohen

(1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Erlbaum.

10.

Constantine

M. G.

(2007). Racial microaggressions against African American clients in cross-racial counseling relationships. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.54.1.1.

11.

Constantine

M. G.

Gloria

A. M.

Ladany

(2002). The factor structure underlying three self-report multicultural counseling competence scales. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 8(4), 334–345. https://doi.org/10.1037/1099-9809.8.4.335.

12.

Constantine

M. G.

Ladany

(2001). New visions for defining and assessing multicultural counseling competence. In Ponterotto

J. G.

Casas

J. M.

Suzuki

L. A.

Alexander

C. M.

(Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (2nd ed., pp. 482–498). Sage.

13.

Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (2001). CACREP accreditation manual.

14.

Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (2016). 2016 CACREP standards. http://www.cacrep.org/for-programs/2016-cacrep-standards/.

15.

Crook

T. M.

Stenger

Gesselman

(2015). Exploring perceptions of social justice advocacy competence among school counselors. Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy, 2(1), 65–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/2326716X.2014.996831.

16.

Davis

D. E.

DeBlaere

Owen

Hook

J. N.

Rivera

D. P.

Choe

Tongeren

D. R.

Worthington

E. L.

Placeres

(2018). The multicultural orientation framework: A narrative review. Psychotherapy, 55(1), 89–100. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000160.

17.

DeCino

D. A.

Strear

M. M.

Olsen

(2018). Exploring school counselors’ social desirability, multicultural counseling competence, and demographics in the Midwest. Journal of School Counseling, 16(2), ■■■. http://jsc.montana.edu/articles/v16n2.pdf.

18.

Drinane

J. M.

Owen

Adelson

J. L.

Rodolfa

(2016). Multicultural competencies: What are we measuring? Psychotherapy Research, 26(3), 342–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2014.983581.

19.

Dunning

(2011). The Dunning–Kruger effect: On being ignorant of one’’s own ignorance. In Olson

J. M.

Zanna

M. P.

(Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (44, pp. 247–296). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-385522-0.00005-6.

20.

Dunning

Johnson

Ehrlinger

Kruger

(2003). Why people fail to recognize their own incompetence. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12(3), 83–87. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.01235.

21.

Faul

Erdfelder

Buchner

Lang

A. G.

(2009). Statistical power analyses using G* Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41(4), 1149–1160. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193146.

22.

Feldwisch

R. P.

Whiston

S. C.

(2015). Examining school counselors’ commitments to social justice advocacy. Professional School Counseling, 19(1), 166–175. https://doi.org/10.5330/1096-2409-19.1.166.

23.

Gainor

K. A.

Constantine

M. G.

(2002). Multicultural group supervision: A comparison of in-person versus web-based formats. Professional School Counseling, 6(2), 104–111.

24.

Greene

J. H.

(2018). The multicultural school counseling behavior scale: Development, psychometrics, and use. Professional School Counseling, 22(1), ■■■. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156759X18816687.

25.

Greenwald

A. G.

(1975). Consequences of prejudice against the null hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 82(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0076157.

26.

Gunter

(2002). Student counselors’ anxiety, clinical performance, comfort levels when working with culturally similar and dissimilar clients. (Publication No. 3036044) [Doctoral dissertation]. Pennsylvania State University. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

27.

Guzman

M. R.

Calfa

N. A.

Kerne

V. V. H.

McCarthy

(2013). Examination of multicultural counseling competencies in school counselors. Journal of School Counseling, 11(7), ■■■. http://jsc.montana.edu/articles/v11n7.pdf.

28.

Harley

D. A.

Jolivette

McCormick

Tice

(2002). Race, class, and gender: A constellation of positionalities with implications for counseling. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 30(4), 216–238. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1912.2002.tb00521.x.

29.

Harris

P. N.

Shillingford

M. A.

Bryan

(2018). Factors influencing school counselor involvement in partnerships with families of color: A social cognitive exploration. Professional School Counseling, 22(1), ■■■. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156759X18814712.

30.

Hayden-Davis

A. M.

(2006). Multicultural counseling competencies of school counselors. Dissertations and Theses. University of Georgia. http://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/hayden-davis_andrea_m_200612_phd.pdf.

31.

Hayes

A. F.

(2013). The PROCESS macro for SPSS and SAS (version 2.13). [Software].

32.

Holcomb-McCoy

(2001b). The MCCTS-R: Assessing school counselors’ perceived multicultural counseling competence. [Unpublished manuscript].

33.

Holcomb-McCoy

C. C.

(2001a). Exploring the self-perceived multicultural counseling competence of elementary school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 4(3), 195–201.

34.

Holcomb-McCoy

C. C.

(2005). Investigating school counselors’ perceived multicultural competence. Professional School Counseling, 8(5), 414–423.

35.

Holcomb-McCoy

C. C.

Day-Vines

(2004). Exploring school counselor multicultural competence: A multidimensional concept. Measurement in Counseling and Development, 37(3), 154–162. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481756.2004.11909757.

36.

Holcomb‐McCoy

C. C.

Myers

J. E.

(1999). Multicultural competence and counselor training: A national survey. Journal of Counseling & Development, 77(3), 294–302. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1999.tb02452.x.

37.

Hook

J. N.

Davis

D. E.

Owen

Worthington

E. L.

Jr. Utsey

S. O.

(2013). Cultural humility: Measuring openness to culturally diverse clients. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(3), 353–366. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032595.

38.

Hook

J. N.

Farrell

J, E.

Davis

D. E.

DeBlaere

Van Tongeren

D. R.

Utsey

S. O.

(2016). Cultural humility and racial microaggressions in counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(3), 269–277. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000114.

39.

Hussar

W. J.

Bailey

T. M.

(2014). Projections of education statistics to 2022. (NCES 2014-051). National Center for Education Statistics.

40.

Kivlighan

D. M.

III Adams

M. C.

Drinane

J. M.

Tao

K. W.

Owen

(2019). Construction and validation of the multicultural orientation inventory-group version. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 66(1), 45–55. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000294.

41.

Koo

T. K.

M. Y.

(2016). A guideline of selecting and reporting intraclass correlation coefficients for reliability research. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, 15(2), 155–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcm.2016.02.012.

42.

Lee

D. L.

Tracey

T. J.

(2008). General and multicultural case conceptualization skills: A cross-sectional analysis of psychotherapy trainees. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 45(4), 507–522. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014336.

43.

Lepkowski

W. J.

Packman

Smaby

M. H.

Maddux

(2009). Comparing self and expert assessments of counseling skills before and after skills training, and upon graduation. Education, 129(3), 363–371.

44.

Luke

Gilbride

Goodrich

K. M.

(2017). School counselors’ approach to ethical decision making. Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy, 4(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6978.2013.00039.x.

45.

Nilsson

J. E.

Marszalek

J. M.

Linnemeyer

R. M.

Bahner

A. D.

Misialek

L. H.

(2011). Development and assessment of the social issues advocacy scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 71(1), 258–275. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164410391581.

46.

Ottavi

T. M.

Pope-Davis

D. B.

Dings

J. G.

(1994). Relationship between white racial identity attitudes and self-reported multicultural counseling competencies. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 41(2), 149–154. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.41.2.149.

47.

Owen

Drinane

Tao

K. W.

Adelson

J. L.

Hook

J. N.

Davis

Fookune

(2017). Racial/ethnic disparities in client unilateral termination: The role of therapists’ cultural comfort. Psychotherapy Research, 27(1), 102–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2015.1078517.

48.

Owen

Jordan

T. A.

Turner

Davis

D. E.

Hook

J. N.

Leach

M. M.

(2014). Therapists’ multicultural orientation: Client perceptions of cultural humility, spiritual/religious commitment, and therapy outcomes. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 42(1), 91–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/009164711404200110.

49.

Owen

Tao

K. W.

Drinane

J. M.

Hook

Davis

D. E.

Kune

N. F.

(2016). Client perceptions of therapists’ multicultural orientation: Cultural (missed) opportunities and cultural humility. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 47(1), 30–37. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000046.

50.

Owen

J. J.

Tao

Leach

M. M.

Rodolfa

(2011). Clients’’ perceptions of their psychotherapists’’ multicultural orientation. Psychotherapy, 48(3), 274–282. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022065.

51.

Owens

Bodenhorn

Bryan

R. M.

(2010). Self-efficacy and multicultural competence of school counselors. Journal of School Counseling, 8(17), 1–20. http://jsc.montana.edu/articles/v8n17.pdf.

52.

Parikh

S. B.

Post

Flowers

(2011). Relationship between a belief in a just world and social justice advocacy attitudes of school counselors. Counseling and Values, 56(1–2), 57–72. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-007X.2011.tb01031.x.

53.

Placeres

(2020). Multicultural counseling competencies: A 30-year review of American counseling association journals. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Georgia State University.

54.

Pope-Davis

D. B.

Heesacker

Coleman

H. L.

Liu

W. M.

Toporek

R. L.

(2003). Handbook of multicultural competencies in counseling and psychology. Sage.

55.

Ratts

M. J.

Hutchins

A. M.

(2009). ACA advocacy competencies: Social justice advocacy at the client/student level. Journal of Counseling & Development, 87(3), 269–275. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2009.tb00106.x.

56.

Ratts

M. J.

Singh

A. A.

Nassar‐McMillan

Butler

S. K.

McCullough

J. R.

(2016). Multicultural and social justice counseling competencies: Guidelines for the counseling profession. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 44(1), 28–48. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmcd.12035.

57.

Rosenthal

Rosnow

R. L.

(1991). Essentials of behavioral research: Methods and data analysis (Vol. 2). McGraw-Hill.

58.

Schlomer

G. L.

Bauman

Card

N. A.

(2010). Best practices for missing data management in counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018082.

59.

Slone

N. C.

Owen

(2015). Therapist alliance activity, therapist comfort, and systemic alliance on individual psychotherapy outcome. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 25(4), 275–288. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039562.

60.

Steele

J. M.

Bischof

G. H.

Craig

S. E.

(2014). Political ideology and perceptions of social justice advocacy among members of the American counseling association. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 36(4), 450–467. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-014-9217-0.

61.

Sue

D. W.

Bernier

J. E.

Durran

Feinberg

Pedersen

Smith

E. J.

Vasquez-Nuttall

(1982). Position paper: Cross-cultural counseling competencies. The Counseling Psychologist, 10(2), 45–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000082102008.

62.

Sue

D. W.

Sue

(1999). Counseling the culturally different: Theory and practice. Wiley.

63.

Tadlock-Marlo

R. L.

Zyromski

Asner-Self

K. K.

Sheng

(2013). One school, many differences: An assessment tool for school counselors and multicultural counseling. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 35(3), 234–250. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-012-9179-z.

64.

Tao

K. W.

Owen

Pace

B. T.

Imel

Z. E.

(2015). A meta-analysis of multicultural competencies and psychotherapy process and outcome. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 62(3), 337–350. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000086.

65.

Tomlinson-Clarke

(2013). Multicultural counseling competencies: Extending multicultural training paradigms toward globalization. Ideas and Research You Can Use: VISTAS 2013. https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/vistas/multicultural-counseling-competencies.pdf?sfvrsn=13ff19a0_13.

66.

Waldinger

R. J.

Schulz

M. S.

Hauser

S. T.

Allen

J. P.

Crowell

J. A.

(2004). Reading others’’ emotions: The role of intuitive judgments in predicting marital satisfaction, quality, and stability. Journal of Family Psychology, 18(1), 58–71. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.18.1.58.

67.

Worthington

R. L.

Mobley

Franks

R. P.

Tan

J. A.

(2000). Multicultural counseling competencies: Verbal content, counselor attributions, and social desirability. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47(4), 460–468. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.47.4.460.

68.

Worthington

R. L.

Soth-McNett

A. M.

Moreno

M. V.

(2007). Multicultural counseling competencies research: A 20-year content analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54(4), 351–361. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.54.4.351.