Helping skills courses: The effects of student diversity and numeric marginalization on counseling self-efficacy, counseling self-stigma, and mental health.

Abstract

We examined the effects of racial/ethnic diversity and numeric marginalization on learning outcomes (changes in counseling self-efficacy, self-stigma for seeking counseling, and mental health) with 402 students in 30 sections of helping skills classes. Students self-identified as African American, Asian, Hispanic/Latinx, Other, or White. We operationalized class diversity with the diversity index developed by Chang (1999) and numeric marginalization as the percentage of students in the class that shared a target student's identity. Using two-level Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM; students nested within classes), we predicted counseling self-efficacy, counseling self-stigma, and mental health from student identity (Level 1), and the cross-level interaction between diversity and numeric marginalization (Level 2). Results suggested that classroom diversity had no effects on counseling self-efficacy but was associated with greater self-stigma. However, more classroom diversity was linked with better mental health for Latinx students. With African American students, numeric marginalization was associated with more counseling self-stigma. Surprisingly, for Asian students, numeric marginalization (i.e., a greater percentage of Asian students in a classroom) was linked with worse mental health. Finally, diversity had no effects on outcomes for White students. Findings demonstrate the importance of racial/ethnic composition in helping skills courses. Public Significance StatementWe examined the effects of racial/ethnic diversity (mix of students from different racial/ethnic groups) and numeric marginalization (the number of students sharing a student's racial/ethnic identity) on counseling self-efficacy, counseling self-stigma, and mental health in helping skills classes at a large mid-Atlantic university. The effects of both diversity and numeric marginalization depended on students' self-identified race/ethnicity. Findings suggest that classroom composition is related to personal outcomes in higher education classes. Therefore, instructors should focus on increasing the racial/ethnic diversity of the class and preventing numeric marginalization to the extent possible.

Helping skills training: Outcomes and trainer effects.

“…In terms of limitations, there are a number of other contextual factors that we could not take into consideration. For example, a recent study using a portion of this data suggested that racial/ethnic composition of the classroom affected student personal outcomes (Ahn et al, 2022). Likewise, the identity of the professor teaching the psychology sections may have influenced the results.…”

Psychotherapy training and supervision with undergraduate and graduate students.

“…Specifically, Keum et al (2018) found that average counseling self-stigma of the whole class (not just the individual's self-stigma) was associated with increases in individual students' attitudes toward help-seeking, suggesting that class climate is important for learning. Relatedly, Ahn et al (2022) found evidence that more racial/ethnic diversity in lab groups was associated with better outcomes (e.g., reduction in self-stigma related to seeking counseling). Thus, it could be that being exposed to diversity helps to build empathy.…”

Assessment of Counseling Self-Efficacy: Validation of the German Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scales-Revised

“…In research, the CASES has been applied in a variety of ways, using the individual scales (e.g., Chen et al, 2020 ; Ahn et al, 2021 ), the total score (e.g., Andersen et al, 2021 ; Meydan, 2021 ), or combinations (e.g., Lent et al, 2006 ; Ryba et al, 2021 ). However, if the goal is to measure general CSE by using the CASES total score, it is methodologically important to examine the dimensional structure of the instrument as a unit and to investigate whether specific facets explain sufficient variance beyond the general factor.…”