Development and Initial Examination of the School Psychology Multicultural Competence Scale

Abstract

This study reports on the initial development and examination of the School Psychology Multicultural Competence Scale (SPMCS), a 45-item self-report measure for evaluating school psychologists' multicultural competence in the primary domains of school psychology practice (i.e., assessment, consultation, intervention). A sample of 312 school psychology graduate students was recruited by outreach to school psychology training programs and email listservs to complete the SPMCS and a questionnaire about previous multicultural/diversity coursework and practicum with culturally and linguistically diverse clients. The results from principal axis factoring indicated that 28 of the 45 SPMCS items contributed to a four-factor solution with subscales identified as cultural skills, cultural knowledge, cultural appreciation, and cultural awareness. Internal consistency for each subscale was moderate to high. Overall, completion of multicultural/diversity courses and completion of practicum with culturally and linguistically diverse clients were associated with higher self-reported scores of multicultural competence. The SPMCS can potentially be used as one component to evaluate the extent to which training programs develop the multicultural competence of their trainees. Additionally, these findings provide additional insight into the conceptualization of multicultural competence.

Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competency Research: Opportunities for Innovation

“…Scholars across counseling and counseling‐related disciplines have indicated that trainees perceive gains in their overall multicultural competency as a result of a specific culturally based learning activity (Collins, Arthur, Brown, & Kennedy, 2015), multicultural scholarship engagement (Gillem et al, 2016), diversity workshop attendance (Hall & Theriot, 2016), and graduate coursework (Block, Rossi, Allen, Alschuler, & Wilson, 2016; Collins et al, 2015; Gillem et al, 2016; Malone et al, 2016). Although most studies have explored gains in multicultural awareness and knowledge, some research shows further multicultural skill development occurs through culturally relevant practicum or other immersion experiences (Collins et al, 2015; Johnson & Jackson Williams, 2015; Malone et al, 2016; Prosek & Michel, 2016; Singh et al, 2010).…”

“…Experiential training opportunities can enhance trainees’ ability to apply multicultural and social justice awareness and knowledge to action (Chapman & Schwartz, 2012; Collins et al, 2015; Johnson & Jackson Williams, 2015; Malone et al, 2016; Prosek & Michel, 2016). Furthermore, operationalizing the specific experiences helpful to trainees could be used to further operationalize skill development for future assessment procedures.…”

Development and Exploratory Factor Analysis of the Interventionist Multitiered Systems of Support Multicultural Competence Scale

“…The 45 items comprised three 15-item subscales ( Awareness , Knowledge , Skills ) on the SPMCS with participants indicating their level of agreement using a Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree ). Malone et al (2016) eliminated 17 items from the SPMCS because some items did not contribute to a straightforward factor structure. The final measure was a 28-item scale.…”

Multicultural school psychology training: An examination of students’ self‐reported course outcomes

“…These results should be interpreted with caution and future replication studies are warranted. The measures used in the study were not specific to school psychology, and future studies should consider using the recently released School Psychology Multicultural Competence Scale (SPMCS; Malone et al., ). Also, future research must address the significant need for similar research studies, which examine the effects of multicultural school psychology courses on student outcomes.…”