Multicultural competency, training, and outreach and setting : a quantitative study with college counselors

Abstract

This study looked at differences in multicultural competencies of college counselors by training, outreach, institutional setting, and demographic characteristics and their relationship to multicultural counseling competencies as measured by the Multicultural Counseling Knowledge and Awareness Scale. Using a non-experimental cross-sectional design, this study gathered information from 77 college counselors responding to a web-based, self-report survey. The participants for this study were drawn from a non-probability sample of college counseling center staff currently employed at a college counseling center and currently providing counseling services to college or university students. The study found that training, outreach and certain institutional setting characteristics, such as offering multicultural training, counseling staff diversity, and offering counselors more contact with students of color, were related to higher levels of multicultural knowledge and skills in the sampled college counselors. The results support the provision of in-house multicultural competency training, counselor outreach activities to minority student groups, as well as the importance of hiring and retaining counselors of color. Research implications include the need for further research on outreach activities, ethnic identity in college counselors, updated measurement instruments, and more objective measures of outcomes and counselor\u27s multicultural competency

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