Exploring the Relationships Among Multicultural Training Experiences and Attitudes Toward Diversity Among Counseling Students

Abstract

The authors surveyed a national sample of master's‐level counseling students regarding their multicultural training experiences and their attitudes toward racial diversity and gender equity (see G. L. Dickson & D. A. Jepsen, 2007). Hierarchical regression models showed that student perceptions of program cultural ambience predicted positive cognitive attitudes toward racial diversity. Participatory instructional strategies predicted positive affective attitudes toward racial diversity. Los autores entrevistaron a una muestra nacional de estudiantes de Master en programas de consejería en relación a sus experiencias en formación multicultural y sus actitudes hacia la diversidad racial y la igualdad de sexo (ver G. L. Dickson & D. A. Jepsen, 2007). Los modelos de regresión jerárquica mostraron que las percepciones de los estudiantes de la atmósfera cultural en sus programas predijeron actitudes cognitivas positivas hacia la diversidad racial. Las estrategias didácticas participativas predijeron actitudes afectivas positivas hacia la diversidad racial.

Multicultural Curriculum Designs in Counselor Education Programs: Enhancing Counselors-in-Training Openness to Diversity

“…Based on an analysis of the outcomes of three different courses typically offered in most CACREP programs, Coll, Doumas, Trotter and Freeman (2013) evidenced significant changes in attitudes, empathy, and willingness to adapt to a client's cultural background as a result of multicultural counseling training. Consistently, Dickson, Jepsen, and Barbee (2008) found that participatory training strategies (e.g., role plays and processing of reactions) predicted positive affective attitudes toward racial diversity and greater comfort with interracial contact. According to Arredondo and Arciniega (2001), in order for mental health professionals to be culturally competent they must be able to understand and accept alternative worldviews.…”

“…With high levels of training and low levels of CoBRA, school counselors will be able to have greater MCC thus allowing them to effectively assist students of diverse backgrounds. Dickson, Jepsen, and Barbee (2008) also found that "perceptions of a culturally sensitive program ambience were the only significant predictors of positive cognitive attitudes toward issues of racial diversity" (p.…”

Attending to Diversity Representation Among Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) Master’s Programs: A Pilot Study

“…Other groups like AI/AN and Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, were almost absent across the studies. The only group that appeared to have good representation across most study samples, except in the Dickson et al (2008) study, was African Americans. Only one study could be located that provided sexual orientation demographics among counseling programs.…”

“…Only one study could be located that provided sexual orientation demographics among counseling programs. Dickson et al (2008) reported the self-identified sexual orientation of the participants in their study, which were heterosexual (94%), lesbian (2.5%), bisexual (2.1%), gay (1%), and other (.004%). This data is juxtaposed with the most common estimate for the prevalence of individuals identifying as LGB in the general population as 10% .…”

“…While exploring extant counselor education research that reported student demographic data (see Dickson et al 2008;Greason and Cashwell 2009;Smith et al 2007;Welfare and Borders 2010), it quickly became clear that almost all racially/ethnically diverse groups were under-represented compared to their proportions within the general U.S. population and the national pool of bachelor's degree recipients (see Table 1). Although Asian Americans earned a higher percentage of bachelor's degrees compared to their proportion of the U.S. population, they were under-represented in all the counselor education studies reviewed by the authors.…”