The Relationship Between Racial Identity Development and Multicultural Counseling Competency: A Second Look

Abstract

The relationship between racial identity development and multicultural counseling competency across a 2-year period of time was examined in this study. Significant increases were found in multicultural counseling competency but not in their levels of racial identity development across time. Possible explanations for and limitations of this research are discussed.La relacion entre el desarrollo de la identidad racial y la competencia para consejeria multicultural a traves de un periodo de dos atios se examina en esta investigacion. Se encuentran aumentos significantes en la competencia para consejeria multicultural, per0 no en el nivel de desarrollo de identidad racial a traves del tiempo. Se examinan las posibles explicaciones y las limitaciones de esta investigacion tambien. acial identity development, or "one's sense of belonging to an ethnic group and the part of one's thinking, perceptions, feelings, and behav-

Competent Counseling for Middle Eastern American Clients: Implications for Trainees

“…For example, one participant marked her race as "White" on the demographic questionnaire, but in the "other" section explained that she was adopted by a Black family when she was young and ethnically self-identified as Black. Research has documented a positive relationship between racial identity and multicultural competence, in which higher levels of racial identity have correlated with higher levels of multicultural counseling competency (Vinson & Neimeyer, 2003). One can logically assume that higher levels of racial identity suggests that an individual has an awareness and understanding of his or her own culture, which, in turn, can affect his or her sensitivity and understanding of the culture of others (Vinson & Neimeyer, 2003).…”

Broaching the Subjects of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture During the Counseling Process

“…Although the list was further expanded to 34 competencies in 1998, the 31 competencies model has received the most research attention and the endorsement of the American Counseling Association (ACA), the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES), and two divisions (17 & 45) of the American Psychological Association (Arredondo et al, 1996; D. W. Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992; D. W. Sue, Bernier, et al, 1982; D. W. Sue, Carter, et al, 1998). There is growing support for the view that the competencies provide guidelines for best practice (Arredondo, 1998;Corey, 1996;Vinson & Neimeyer, 2003). Specifically, Multicultural Counseling Competence III.C.7 appears to support the need for counselors to take responsibility for acknowledging cultural factors present in the counseling relationship (D. W. Sue et al, 1992), which we conceptualized as the broaching process.…”

Development and initial validation of the Multicultural Counseling Self-Efficacy Scale--Racial Diversity Form.

“…Racial/ethnic minority counselors have consistently been found to describe themselves as more multiculturally competent than do White Americans in several samples, including counseling/clinical psychology students Vinson & Neimeyer, 2003), vocational rehabilitation counselors (Bellini, 2002), and APA-approved university counseling center staff members (Sodowsky, Kuo-Jackson, Richardson, & Corey, 1998). This racial/ethnic difference was also cross-validated by the CCCI-R, an other-report multicultural counseling instrument (Constantine, 2001c).…”

“…Findings from prior research (e.g., Bellini, 2002;Vinson & Neimeyer, 2003) and the current study have suggested that racial/ethnic minority counseling students and professionals tend to receive more multicultural counseling training and have a higher proportion of minority clients on their caseloads, which may, in turn, lead to higher perceived abilities to perform multicultural counseling Pope-Davis et al, 1994). In other words, the racial differences on multicultural counseling competency or self-efficacy may be due to how much multicultural counseling training and other relevant experience a counselor receives rather than being due to his or her race per se.…”