Whose multicultural orientation matters most? Examining additive and compensatory effects of the group’s and leader’s multicultural orientation in group therapy.

Abstract

Objective: The multicultural orientation (MCO) framework has received increased attention within the multicultural group work literature. However, most of this research has examined cultural processes between group members and how cultural processes of the group-as-a-whole directly impact outcomes of individual members. As such, the effect of group leaders' MCO on members' improvement has largely been ignored. Understanding the complex interaction between leaders' and group members' MCO is critical to advance this body of literature and further understand the dynamic interplay of cultural processes between leaders and members of therapy groups. Method: Data for this study consisted of 101 group members across 48 interpersonal process groups at 12 university counseling centers. Polynomial regression and response surface analysis were conducted to test additive and compensatory effects between members' perceptions of their group's and their leaders' MCO on their perceived improvement in group therapy. Results: Clients' estimated improvement was highest when their perceptions of their group's and leaders' cultural humility were congruent and high (i.e., additive effect). Additionally, clients' estimated improvement was highest when clients perceived either (a) the group high in cultural missed opportunities and leaders low in cultural missed opportunities or (b) the group low in cultural missed opportunities and leaders high in cultural missed opportunities (i.e., compensatory effect). Conclusions: This article grows the existing body of literature on MCO orientation by exploring how group's and leaders' MCO interact in complex and important ways with client's perceived improvement in therapy. Both leaders and members should engage in cultural aspects of the group. Highlights and Implications• This study sought to examine the effect of clients' perceptions of their other members' and their group leaders' MCO on their perceived improvement in group therapy.

Perceived cultural humility in supervision group and trainees’ cultural responsiveness self-efficacy.

“…Perceived cultural humility was assessed for the supervision group as a whole rather than separating a score for the group supervisor and another for nonsupervisor members. Evidence of MCO research on group therapy suggests that both group leaders’ and members’ cultural humility affects clients’ improvement in the interpersonal group (Grimes & Kivlighan, 2022). In the context of group supervision, group supervisors have an irreplaceable role in norming members’ approach to culturally salient topics, modeling cultural humility, and addressing cultural conflicts and impasses in the group (Watkins et al, 2022).…”

Group Dynamics in Multicultural Group Counseling

“…Dialogue that takes place with an open attitude and respect for comparison helps deepen the description of life experiences and unique perspectives of different individuals. It also opens up opportunities to build bridges of description and dismantle stereotypes that could have gaps (Grimes & Kivlighan, 2021).…”

The Multicultural Orientation Inventory–Group Version-8: Development and validation of a brief scale to measure cultural processes in group therapy.

“…This study was conducted using an archival data set from several previously published studies examining the group’s MCO in group therapy (Grimes & Kivlighan, 2022; Kivlighan et al, 2019, 2021). The archival data set consisted of 438 clients across 129 therapy groups at 13 university counseling centers in the United States.…”

“…J. Owen et al, 2011, 2016). Additionally, the MCO framework has been applied to a group therapy context to further examine the role of a group’s MCO on members’ perceptions of various group factors, such as cohesion, and improvement in group therapy (Grimes & Kivlighan, 2022; Kivlighan et al, 2019). Despite this advancement, the majority of MCO research, including MCO group research, has utilized cross-sectional retrospective designs, and researchers have called for more longitudinal studies to examine how cultural processes change over the course of therapy (Kivlighan et al, 2019; J.…”