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Cross-Cultural Contact in Counseling Training.

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Title: Cross-Cultural Contact in Counseling Training.
Language: English
Authors: Diaz-Lazaro, Carlos M., Cohen, B. Beth
Source: Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development. Jan 2001 29(1):41-56.
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 16
Publication Date: 2001
Document Type: Information Analyses
Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Competence, Counselor Characteristics, Counselor Training, Cross Cultural Training, Cultural Awareness, Cultural Pluralism, Program Effectiveness
ISSN: 0883-8534
Abstract: Reports on the importance of cross-cultural contact in the development of multicultural counseling competencies (MCCs). Results reveal that the greater the prior cross-cultural life experience, the higher were students' MCCs measured at the beginning of a multicultural counseling course. MCCs measured at the end of the course were significantly higher than MCCs measured at the beginning. (Contains 35 references and 2 tables.) (Author/GCP)
Entry Date: 2001
Accession Number: EJ624457
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0004055724;mcd01jan.01;2005Jan06.11:38;v2.2.460</anid> <title id="AN0004055724-1">Cross-Cultural Contact in Counseling Training </title> <p>Cross-cultural contact was found to be important in the development of multicultural counseling competencies (MCCs). The greater the prior cross cultural life experience, the higher were students' MCCs measured at the beginning of a multicultural counseling course. MCCs measured at the end of the course were significantly higher than MCCs measured at the beginning of the course. Theme analysis of students' journals suggested that cross-cultural contact, a major component of the course, was important in MCCs's development.</p> <p>" Multicultural counseling has been referred to as the "fourth force" in counseling (Essandoh, 1996; Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992). The training of multiculturally competent counselors is strongly advocated by many scholars (e.g., LaFromboise, Coleman, & Hernandez, 1991; Ponterotto, Casas, Suzuki, & Alexander, 1995; Sue et al., 1992; Sue et al., 1982). Several surveys reveal that counseling and psychology graduate programs and internship sites are increasingly including multicultural issues in course work, research, and practica (e.g., Allison, Crawford, Echemendia, Robinson, & Knepp, 1994; Bernal & Padilla, 1982; Constantine, Ladany, Inman, & Ponterotto, 1996; Hills & Strozier, 1992; Murphy, Wright, & Bellamy, 1995; Phillips & Fisher, 1998; Ponterotto, Alexander, & Grieger, 1993; Wyatt & Parham, 1985). However, none of these surveys has directly assessed the role of cross-cultural contact, that is, person-to-person interactions between members of culturally different groups. Research on the development of multicultural counseling competencies has also neglected the relevance of cross-cultural contact. Studies in this area have focused mainly on validating the four instruments that have been developed for measuring the construct and correlating these instruments with demographic and educational variables (e.g., LaFromboise et al., 1991; Moss, 1997; Pope-Davis & Ottavi, 1994; Pope-Davis, Reynolds, Dings, & Nielson, 1995; Sodowsky, Taffe, Gutkin, & Wise, 1994).</p> <p>Few studies have assessed the impact of cross-cultural contact experiences in the training of counselors, and only two studies have done so directly. Merta, Stringham, and Ponterotto (1988) developed a two-unit training exercise for graduate students in a special topics seminar course. The first unit, primarily cognitive, consisted of writing, discussion, and lecture about culture shock along with a brief cultural assimilator group exercise. The second unit of Merta et al.'s exercise involved direct cross-cultural contact by having trainees and members of the Arab culture role-play a critical incident scenario. Two months after this two-unit exercise, it was assessed by students rating each unit on a single Likert-scale item (1 = low to 5 = high) that inquired how valuable the unit was for increasing students' understanding of cultural awareness, culture shock, and cultural differences. Students rated the cross-cultural contact as more valuable than the cognitive component (4.31 vs. 4.00). Merta et al. concluded that "it is significant that, two months after the program, all the stu dents not only reported that they remembered the experience but that they rated it so favorably" (p. 244). However, the researchers did not indicate whether the results were statistically significant. Although not methodologically strong, the exploratory study is suggestive of the importance of cross-cultural contact in the training of culturally sensitive practitioners.</p> <p>Another drawback of Merta et al.'s (1988) study was the brevity of the experiential exercise. Mio (1989) studied the effects of a longer cross-cultural con tact component within a multicultural counseling course, pointing out that if prejudice is to be decreased by cross-cultural contact, one short-time experience is unlikely to have such an effect. Students were divided into two contact experiences: one involving a semester-long, one-to-one exchange with an international student and the other consisting of participant observations of one group (e.g., attending ethnic restaurants, visiting ethnic stores, and attending cultural events). Students were required to write a paper on the experience, the concluding paragraphs of which were rated by two independent judges. Participants in the one-to-one exchange were rated as having had a richer experience than had the students in the participant observation group. Mio (1989) concluded that the "actual one-to-one exchange of ideas with an individual can greatly enhance one's experience with members of another cultural group above and beyond factual knowledge about the group" (p. 43).</p> <p>Two other studies have tangentially tapped into the relevance of cross-cultural contact in counseling training. Heppner and O'Brien (1994) and Neville et al. (1996) each collected qualitative data on helpful and hindering events and their impacts on students in a multicultural counseling course. Results of both studies suggest the importance of various cross-cultural contact activities in the training of future counselors. Of special interest, participants in both studies consistently reported that guest speakers from different cultural backgrounds was the most important course component in helping them achieve their desired changes, strongly suggesting the importance of this particular type of cross-cultural contact.</p> <p>To explain the results of all four of these studies, it is helpful to examine the contact hypothesis, which is "among the most researched psychological principles for reducing interracial prejudice" (Wittig & Grant-Thompson, 1998, p. 798). According to the contact hypothesis, intergroup contact will facilitate the reduction of intergroup prejudice and conflict as long as several specific necessary conditions are present (Allport, 1954; Amir, 1969; Cook, 1985; Hewstone & Brown, 1986). Among the most prominent of these conditions are</p> <ct id="AN0004055724-2"> equal status of all group members within the contact situation, cooperative interdependence among group members, normative support of positive relations and equal status within the contact situation, and interactions that disconfirm stereotypes and encourage the transmission of individuating information about group members (Marcus-Newhall & Heindl, 1998, p. 815)</ct> <p>as well as</p> <ct id="AN0004055724-3"> individualized contact having the potential for friendships across groups. (Wittig & Grant-Thompson, 1998, p. 798)</ct> <p>Role playing of critical incident scenarios with members of a culturally different group (Merta et al., 1988) is a situation involving cooperative interdependence, normative support, and equal status, which are three of the necessary contact conditions. Extended personal contact with an international student (Mio, 1989) fulfills not only these three conditions but also two others: potential for friendship and individuating, nonstereotypical information transmission. Culturally different guest speakers (Heppner & O'Brien, 1994; Neville et al., 1996) are likely to be viewed positively by virtue of their invitation to speak, thus fulfilling the status condition of the contact hypothesis. In addition, guest speakers provide students the opportunity to see the speakers as individuals rather than as stereotypic representatives of their group.</p> <p>In a recent comprehensive review of the contact hypothesis research literature, Pettigrew (1997) concluded that "Allport's formulation receives considerable support across a variety of societies, situations, and groups, from German children in school with Turkish children to attitudes concerning the elderly and the mentally ill" (p. 173). It seems surprising that such a well-researched and well-supported hypothesis has not received more attention in the field of multicultural counseling training. A decade after the studies by Merta et al. (1988) and Mio (1989), no other studies have directly assessed the impact of cross-cultural contact in the development of multicultural counseling compev. The lack of research in this area was recently recognized by Pope-Davis, Breaux, and Lin (1997), who confirmed the importance of conducting such research and proposed guidelines for the development of a Multicultural Immersion Experience (MIE).</p> <p>In conclusion, existing evidence and theory strongly suggest that cross-cultural contact may have a positive influence on the reduction of negative attitudes toward members of culturally different groups and thus also on the development of multicultural counseling competencies. The purpose of the present research was to further assess the impact of cross-cultural contact in the training of culturally sensitive counselors by investigating the effects on multicultural counseling competencies of both cross-cultural life experience accumulated before multicultural training and cross-cultural experience built into multicultural training. A study was designed to explore the multicultural counseling competencies of students in a multicultural counseling course that provided strong cross-cultural contact. The course was planned to include a required cultural immersion project in accordance with Pope-Davis et al.'s (1997) suggestions as well as frequent, high-status guest speakers who were members of the cultural minorities studied in the course.</p> <p>The study tested three hypotheses. First, the greater the degree of prior cross cultural contact a student had the greater would be the student's multicultural counseling competencies at the beginning of the course. Second, students' multicultural counseling competencies would be higher at the end of the course than at the beginning of the course. Third, students would indicate that cross-cultural experiences were instrumental in the development of their multicultural counseling competencies. Support for these hypotheses would suggest that multicultural counseling competencies could be enhanced by cross-cultural contact experience.</p> <p>Several features of this study point out its relevance and its unique contribution to the existing literature in the field of multicultural training. This is the first study to investigate the effects on multicultural counseling competencies of cross-cultural contact both before and during a multicultural counseling course. Currently, there are no published studies directly assessing the relationship between multicultural counseling competencies and prior cross-cultural experience. Although prior research has shown that students develop greater multicultural counseling competencies as a result of taking multicultural counseling course work (e.g., D'Andrea, Daniels, & Heck, 1991; Neville et al., 1996) and that students report that the cross-cultural contact aspects of the course are helpful to their learning (Heppner & O'Brien, 1994; Neville et al., 1996), these studies evaluated courses that may not have particularly emphasized the cross-cultural contact component. The current study collected both objective and descriptive data on a multicultural counseling course with a strong cross-cultural contact component.</p> <hd id="AN0004055724-4"> method </hd> <hd id="AN0004055724-5"> PARTICIPANTS </hd> <p>Research participants were 10 female and 5 male students in a graduate multicultural counseling course at a northeastern state university. The mean age was 30.4 years. Twelve students were non-Hispanic Whites and 3 were ethnic minorities: 1 African American, 1 Asian American, and 1 Native American. All 15 participants reported being heterosexuals, and none indicated having a disability. Students came from programs in school counseling (<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref1">6</reflink>), counseling psychology (<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref2">4</reflink>), school psychology (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref3">2</reflink>), social work (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref4">1</reflink>), early childhood education (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref5">1</reflink>), and English as a second language (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref6">1</reflink>). Seven students were enrolled in doctoral programs, and the other 8 students were enrolled in either master's or permanent certification programs.</p> <hd id="AN0004055724-6"> MEASURES </hd> <p>The Multicultural Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills Survey (MAKSS). The MAKSS (D'Andrea et al., 1991) is a self-report measure developed with the purpose of assessing students' change in multicultural counseling competencies as a result of a multicultural counseling course. Of the four measures of multicultural counseling competencies currently available, the MAKSS was best suited for the purposes of the present research because its items reflect a broad definition of multiculturalism including nonethnic minority groups and it does not require respondents to be currently engaged in cross-cultural counseling practice. Despite being in the initial stages of validation, the MAKSS is suggested by Pope-Davis et al. (1997) as appropriate for researching the effectiveness of a multicultural course.</p> <p>The MAKSS contains sixty 4-point Likert-type scale items, equally divided among three subscales (Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills). Reversed scoring is used for seven negatively worded items. All of the Awareness subscale items are statements to which the respondent indicates the extent of their agreement on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree); for example, "The human service professions, especially counseling and clinical psychology, have failed to meet the mental health needs of ethnic minorities." Two types of knowledge items are included in the scale. The first type asks participants to rate their understanding of terms related to multicultural counseling (e.g., culture, contact hypothesis) on a scale of 1 (very limited) to 4 (very good or very aware). The second type consists of statements such as "Differential treatment in the provision of mental health services is not necessarily thought to be discriminatory," with response choices ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). The Skills subscale consists of direct questions such as "How would you rate your ability to effectively secure information and resources to better serve culturally different clients?" which are answered on a scale of 1 (very limited) to 4 (very good).</p> <p>Internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha) for the subscales has been reported as .75 Awareness, .90 Knowledge, and .96 Skills (D'Andrea et al., 1991); and .68 Awareness, .72 Knowledge, and .88 Skills (Neville et al., 1996); the present study reports reliability for the subscales to be .73 Awareness, .32 Knowledge, and .92 Skills. Full-scale reliability has not been previously reported in other studies but was .87 in the present study. Criterion related validity has been verified by means of pretest-posttest comparison (D'Andrea et al., 1991; Neville et al., 1996).</p> <p>Revised Multicultural Experience Inventory. No existing instrument could be located that measures extent of contact with ethnic and other culturally different minorities. Thus, it was necessary to develop such a measure for the present study. This was done by making minor modifications to the items and scoring of the Multicultural Experience Inventory (MEI; Ramirez, 1991) to create three new scales: MEI-ethnic, MEI-disabilities, and MEI-gay (copies of these scales are available from the authors). The MEI was originally developed as a measure of Hispanic acculturation into White U.S. society. Although Ramirez (1999) has recently modified the MEI, that version was not available at the time the data was collected for the current study. MEI items ask respondents to indicate the amount of contact they have had with both Hispanic and White cultures. The original MEI is scored in such a way that high interaction with both cultures yields a high score, whereas high interaction with only one of the cultures (regardless of which) yields a low score. The three revised MEIs ask respondents to indicate the amount of interaction they have had with the four ethnic groups currently considered minorities in the United States (African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans), persons with disabilities, or sexual minorities (gays, lesbians, and bisexuals). The revised MEIs are scored so that the greater the contact individuals indicate that they have had with a minority group the higher their score, regardless of whether they are members of one or more of the minority groups themselves.</p> <p>Each of the three revised MEIs contains 25 multiple choice items, each with five response choices analogous to a 5-point Likert-type scale. A sample item from the MEI-ethnic is "When I discuss personal problems or issues, I discuss them with: (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref7">1</reflink>) all non-White ethnic minorities, (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref8">2</reflink>) mostly non-White ethnic minorities, (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref9">3</reflink>) non-White ethnic minorities and Anglo/White, about equal, (<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref10">4</reflink>) mostly Anglo/White, or (<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref11">5</reflink>) all Anglo/White." To calculate the scale score for each revised MEI, the 25 items were reverse-scored and then averaged. A composite score was calculated by averaging the three scores to yield an overall index indicating the extent of the respondent's contact with racial minorities, gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, and persons with disabilities. For each revised MEI and the composite, greater scores indicate greater experience and contact with the culturally different.</p> <p>Guided Inquiry. The Guided Inquiry (Heppner & O'Brien, 1994), a semistructured questionnaire originally used to assess clients' perceptions of the counseling experience, was used to gather qualitative data regarding students' perceptions of helpful and hindering components and events related to the multicultural counseling course. The Guided Inquiry comprises the following seven questions: (a) "What was the most important thing that happened in the class this week?" (b) "What changes are you making in your thinking/feeling about multicultural issues as a result of this course?" (c) "What in this course is helping you achieve your desired changes?" (d) "What in this course is keeping you from making your desired changes?" (e) "Did you find yourself thinking about topics related to this course between class sections this week? If so, what thoughts have you had?" (f) "Are you deriving any benefits from this course that you did not expect to happen? If so, what are these benefits?" and (g) "At this point in the semester, please state the most immediate concerns you are having about your intercultural competence" (Heppner & O'Brien, 1994, pp. 8-10).</p> <hd id="AN0004055724-7"> INTERVENTION </hd> <p>The multicultural counseling course used for this study was required for doctoral candidates in the counseling and school psychology programs and was an elective for students in other graduate programs. The second author, a White, female assistant professor, taught the course. Multiculturalism was broadly defined for the purpose of the course; that is, course topics were not limited to issues relevant for ethnic minorities. Other culturally different groups such as people with disabilities, gays, lesbians, and bisexuals were also included in the course content.</p> <p>The course's components were developed to meet most of Pope-Davis et al.'s (1997) suggestions for a three-phase MIE. In the suggested first phase, stu dents identified a culturally different group in which to immerse themselves by identifying a liaison or sponsor willing to introduce them to the culture and to discuss issues related to race, culture, and oppression. In the present course, students were required to choose a group with which they had little or no prior contact or experience, and, although they were not required to identify a sponsor for the entire semester, they were required to meet one time with a liaison to discuss such diversity issues. In the suggested second phase, students were immersed in the other culture by actively involving themselves in cultural events of the group and interacting at a meaningful level with the members of the group (avoiding superficial involvement as a mere observer). The present course implemented this suggestion by requiring students to attend at least one cultural event of the group, thereby experiencing being a minority in the culturally different group; to become familiar with organizations, institutions, and publications created by the group; and to have a meaningful interaction with a liaison from the other culture involving discussion of at least one critical incident scenario. Critical incidents scenarios (i.e., situations presenting an area of conflict between cultures values, standards, or goals) were drawn from Sue and Sue's (1990) classic text or, for groups not included in the text, developed by the present authors. In addition, class meetings frequently included panels of high-status guest speakers representing the cultural minorities being studied. In the suggested third phase, students were supposed to make an oral presentation to the class about their experience with the immersion activity. This suggestion was not implemented in the present course; however, students were required to write a paper about their immersion experience.</p> <p>Pope-Davis et al. (1997) suggested several additional activities, all of which were implemented in the present course: (a) self-assessment of and reflection on overall level of multicultural competence both before and after the immersion experience, which was accomplished by administering the MAKSS (D'Andrea et al., 1991) at the beginning and end of the course and requiring a paper about the immersion experience; (b) keeping a journal of cognitive and affective responses, which was accomplished by requiring weekly completion of the Guided Inquiry (Heppner & O'Brien, 1994); and (c) regular opportunities to debrief in small groups in class to reduce any negative feelings about the experience.</p> <hd id="AN0004055724-8"> PROCEDURE </hd> <p>Students were introduced to the study the first day of the course by the first author, a graduate student in the department who had taken the multicultural counseling course the previous year. Students were given a brief, general explanation of the study, were notified that they could drop out of the study at any time without affecting their course grade, and were informed about coding procedures to protect their confidentiality. The consent form and MAKSS were distributed and completed at this time. Blank Guided Inquiry sheets were distributed by the instructor each week for completion and were returned the following week. All three revised MEI (ethnic; gays, lesbians, and bisexuals; people with disabilities) were given to the students by the instructor at different times throughout the semester to be completed in class or at home. During the last class period, the first author returned to the class to administer the MAKSS a second time, to provide time for completion of the revised MEI's by those students who had not yet submitted them, and to debrief students about the study.</p> <p>All 16 students present on the first day of the course signed the consent form and completed the MAKSS. One of the students withdrew from the course; thus, her data were dropped. Thirteen students completed the second administration of the MAKSS. The MEI-ethnic was completed by 14 students, the MEI-disabilities by 9, and the MEI-gay by 11. This poor response rate was probably due to the discomfort with the instrument that was mentioned by several students during the debriefing. For example, one student mentioned that the survey did not look at quality of contact but simple exposure. Of the 15 students enrolled in the course, I student completed all 13 weekly Guided Inquiries, 8 students completed 12 inquiries, and 7 students completed 11 inquiries. It is possible that the students did not fully comply with completing the MEIs and the journals because of the heavy workload of the course. In addition, the completion of the MEIs was not a class requirement.</p> <hd id="AN0004055724-9"> results </hd> <p>The first hypothesis-the greater the degree of prior cross-cultural contact the greater the level of multicultural counseling competencies-implied that scores on the multicultural experience inventories would correlate positively and significantly with scores on the first administration of the multicultural competency survey. To test this hypothesis, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients between the composite and individual revised MEIs and the Time 1 MAKSS total and subscale scores were calculated. Results are displayed in Table 1. As predicted, there was a very strong, positive correlation between the composite revised MEI and the total MAKSS, suggesting a strong relation between contact with culturally different individuals and multicultural counseling competencies. The composite revised MEI was strongly positively related to multicultural awareness but not significantly related to knowledge or skills. Experience with persons with disabilities and sexual minorities were significantly related to both multicultural awareness and skills but not knowledge; however, experience with ethnic minorities was not related to any of the three aspects of multicultural counseling competencies.</p> <p>The second hypothesis-students' multicultural counseling competencies would be higher at the end of the course than at the beginning of the course-implies that students' scores on the self-report multicultural competency scale would increase significantly as a result of this multicultural course. To assess this change, an analysis of variance of the MAKSS scores was inappropriate because no assumption of normal distribution could be made with such a small sample. Thus, a Wilcoxon signed-rank test was performed. This nonparametric test uses information about both the sign and magnitude of the differences between pairs. Results (displayed in Table 2) indicated that students' scores on the MAKSS were significantly higher at the second administration, suggesting that this multicultural counseling course was effective at increasing students' multicultural counseling competencies on a self-report measure, which is consistent with previous research. This improvement in multicultural counseling competencies was due to significant increases in the Knowledge and Skills subscales; the increase in the Awareness subscale scores was small and not statistically significant.</p> <p>The third hypothesis-students would indicate that cross-cultural experiences were instrumental in the development of their multicultural counseling competencies was examined by analyzing the qualitative Guided Inquiry journal data. The 1,302 journal entries (186 Guided Inquiries multiplied by 7 questions) were coded and analyzed by the first author, who was unaware of the identities of the journals' authors. The data classification system used for this study was similar to the one used in previous studies with the Guided Inquiry (Heppner & O'Brien, 1994; Neville et al., 1996). Journal entries were read multiple times. Independent statements (i.e., meaningful units of text within responses to each question) were identified. These units were intended to both stand on their own and relate to the purpose of the study (Miller & Crabtree, 1992). These statements were then sorted into conceptually meaningful categories or themes by the investigator. Similar responses were classified into the same theme. Heppner and O'Brien (1994) and Neville et al. (1996) have developed meaningful categories from the Guided Inquiry data provided in their studies. Despite awareness of these categories, an attempt was made to come up with independent categories for this study. All of the responses to the seven questions were analyzed; however, only those themes relevant to the third hypothesis of the present study are described here.</p> <p>A substantial proportion (27%) of the 194 units of response to the question, "What was the most important thing that happened in the class this week?" had to do with cross-cultural contact. Of these responses, 21% were indications that reactions to a guest speaker presentation were most important, and another 6% indicated cultural exploration and cross-cultural contact as most important. Typical responses in the former category include "I found the guest speakers to be very informative and enlightening" and "The most important thing that happened in the course this week was bringing speakers. You can only learn so much from a book, by bringing speakers I learned more from them, than I did from the book." The question "What in this course is helping you achieve your desired changes?" yielded 221 response units. Eight percent of these indicated speaker presentations and interaction with speakers and another 8% mentioned interactions with members of a culturally different group. Taken together, 16% of participants' responses to this question indicated that direct contact with a culturally different person was responsible for the achievement of their proposed goals regarding multicultural counseling competencies. In response to the question "What in this course is keeping you from making your desired changes?" there were no mentions of cross-cultural contact being an inhibiting factor, but 7% of the responses indicated that a lack of practice and interactions with minorities was a significant concern. Regarding what relevant thoughts students may have had between class meetings, 6% of the responses were related to cross-cultural interaction and immersion. Among the benefits students reported deriving from the course, 6% clustered around opportunity for cross-cultural contact, and another 6% were related to writing papers about the immersion project or their own worldviews. Finally, a considerable percentage of the responses (18%) concerning intercultural competence were related to lack of cross-cultural interaction and lack of practice with culturally different persons. Some responses in this theme included "my lack of experience working with clients of different backgrounds," "putting into practice what I have learned," and "limited meaningful exposure to diversity."</p> <hd id="AN0004055724-10"> discussion </hd> <p>This is the first study to focus directly on the impact of cross-cultural contact on the development of multicultural counseling competencies. This objective was accomplished quantitatively through assessing the relationship between scores on self-reported multicultural competencies and past cross-cultural experience and change in the former during the course of a semester-long multicultural counseling course that emphasized cross-cultural contact. Qualitatively, the study's purpose was fulfilled through an analysis of student's perceptions of helpful and hindering events in the course. The results suggest that cross-cultural contact is a significant factor in the development of multicultural counseling competencies, implying the importance of incorporating such contact into multicultural counseling courses.</p> <p>Scores on the overall MAKSS positively correlated with scores on the composite and component revised MEIs, suggesting that cross-cultural experience is associated with self-reported multicultural counseling competencies in awareness and, to a lesser extent, skills, but not particularly knowledge. It is likely that cross-cultural contact obtained as part of life experience may make one aware of one's own biases and stereotypes toward the culturally different group, and may even provide some opportunity to develop skills in cross-cultural communication and interaction. However, because the contact may be superficial, it might not necessarily confer significant knowledge about the culturally different group. Variations in these results among the three versions of the revised MEI and among the subscales of the MAKSS were surprising. Perhaps the stronger relationship of multicultural counseling competencies to prior experience with sexual minorities and persons with disabilities than to prior experience with ethnic minorities was found because of the smaller number of individuals who completed the former two versions of the MEI. They may have constituted a more homogeneous group than the larger sample who completed all three versions. The lack of significant correlation between the knowledge competency and any type of multicultural experience may be an artifact of the low internal reliability of the knowledge subscale in this sample. Perhaps more substantial correlations would be found in a larger sample of the population if this subscale proved more reliable.</p> <p>Results suggest that a multicultural counseling course with a strong cross-cultural contact component was effective in augmenting trainees' overall multicultural counseling competencies. Regarding the three aspects of these competencies, results suggest that the course did not change students' awareness of self and others, although it did produce changes in content knowledge about cultures different from their own and confidence in their ability to appropriately provide culturally sensitive behaviors. Because the course included a strong cross-cultural contact component, one may infer that such contact is more important for the development of multicultural knowledge and skills than for awareness, or perhaps students were already highly aware of multicultural issues before the course due to the increased attention media and education is giving to multiculturalism along with their prior cross-cultural contact experiences. Alternatively, it is also possible that students initially overestimated their awareness of multicultural issues but later more accurately estimated their awareness as they realized the complexity of the issues so that there may have actually been a greater awareness change than the scores suggested.</p> <p>Qualitative analysis also illuminated the importance of cross-cultural contact components in multicultural counseling courses. Statements about culturally different guest speakers and other forms of cross-cultural contact as the most important event or the most instrumental in achieving desired changes were relatively frequent. It is worth mentioning that the relatively high frequency of entries reporting speakers as instrumental was not unexpected because of the high proportion of class time devoted to this class component. Nonetheless, the importance of speakers in multicultural counseling training must be emphasized because the present results replicate those reported by Heppner and O'Brien (1994) and Neville et al. (1996), who both found that guest speakers accounted for more than a quarter of the "most important thing that happened" responses. That responses relevant to cross-cultural contact did not appear even more frequently in the present study was unexpected and implies that the cross-cultural component included in the course may not have been sufficiently structured to fulfill the conditions specified by the contact hypothesis. However, it does seem plausible that cross-cultural contact was more important to the students than they revealed in their journals. The fact that students mentioned that they quickly ran out of new things to write implies that they believed it redundant and unnecessary to keep mentioning things they had already mentioned several times before, such as cross-cultural contact. Furthermore, students may have believed that they were writing enough about the cross-cultural experience in their papers so that it was unnecessary to write more about it in their journals. In addition, to mention cross-cultural contact as a positive factor, it should be noted that the lack of various types of cross cultural contact was frequently stated as a hindrance to development or a significant concern. This finding indicates that students perceive a need to establish more interactions with culturally diverse groups to become multiculturally effective counselors.</p> <p>Several limitations of this study should be pointed out. The lack of a control group along with the variability in how the students completed their cultural immersion projects made it difficult to assess whether cross-cultural contact was causal in augmenting multicultural counseling competencies. Future research should compare courses that emphasize clearly structured cross-cultural contact with courses that lack this requirement. In addition, the small sample size restricts the generalizability of the study. It would be helpful to extend this research by studying larger, more diverse samples. Finally, the qualitative and quantitative measurements were hampered in several ways. Only one person analyzed the qualitative data, negating any chance for interrater reliability. The MAKSS is merely a measure of global multicultural counseling competence not a specific measure of competence with each of several specific groups, and the present low reliability (.32) for the Knowledge subscale of the MAKSS indicates that results pertaining to this subscale could be invalid. The MEI was revised for this study because it was the only available measure of cross-cultural contact, despite the fact that there is no research noting reliability and validity of the instrument. More attention should be given to the development of other multicultural experience measures or further research on the psychometric properties of the revised MEI. It must be noted that some of the wording of the revised MEI might have been confusing to participants. For example, participants might have understood the phrase "all non-White ethnic minorities" to mean contact with individuals of each of the ethnic groups, rather than all contact being with individuals of any of the diverse ethnic minority groups. The fact that both the MAKSS and the MEI are self-report measures poses several potential problems: (a) responding based on anticipated rather than actual behaviors or attitudes, (b) responding in socially desirable ways, and (c) interpreting items differently than what was intended by the authors of the measure (Pope-Davis & Dings, 1995).</p> <p>More research is needed on the impact of cross-cultural contact on the development of multicultural counseling competencies because this is the first study to attempt direct assessment of this impact. Despite its limitations, however, this study suggests that training programs in counseling could benefit from including cross-cultural contact as a factor affecting the development of multicultural counseling competencies. Training programs could consider using multicultural life experience as one of the criteria for adequate maturity and preparation for admission. Also, faculty and training staff could plan curricula that provide students with multiple opportunities for immersion experiences similar to those delineated by Pope-Davis et al. (1997) and presented in this study. Instructors are encouraged to document these experiences through quantitative and qualitative analysis and to seek publication of their results in order to fill the void in the literature in this area.</p> <p>Both contact and knowledge are necessary for the development of a multicultural orientation to counseling. Extensive social and applied psychology research on the contact hypothesis confirms that contact in itself is not sufficient; appropriate cognitive structures or schemata are needed to provide a suitable interpretation of the contact experiences. Without these schemata, attributions based on a trial and error may result in inappropriately processing experiences. Both cross-cultural contact and cognitive-didactic experiences are strategies that should go hand-in-hand in the development of multicultural counseling competencies. Additional research is needed to further assess the impact of cross-cultural contact experience as a training technique and its relationship with the didactic elements of multicultural training in the development of multicultural counseling competencies.</p> <hd id="AN0004055724-11">TABLE 1</hd> <hd id="AN0004055724-12">Relation Between Multicultural Counseling Competencies at the Beginning of the Course and Multicultural Experience</hd> <ct id="AN0004055724-13"> Legend for Chart: A - MEI B - MAKSS Scales: n C - MAKSS Scales: Total r D - MAKSS Scales: Awareness r E - MAKSS Scales: Knowledge[a] r F - MAKSS Scales: Skills r A B C D E F Composite 8 .807[2] .826[2] .472 .567 Ethnic 14 .308 .270 .262 .186 Disabilities 9 .889[2] .837[2] .243 .775[2] Gay 11 .775[2] .848[2] -.045 .662[1]</ct> <p>Note. MAKSS = Multicultural Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills Survey. The higher the score the greater the self-reported multicultural counseling competencies. MEI = Multicultural Experience Inventory. The higher the score the greater the experience with the culturally different.</p> <p>a This subscale obtained a low reliability coefficient (r = .32); thus, results may be invalid.</p> <p>1 p < .05. 2 p < .01.</p> <hd id="AN0004055724-14">TABLE 2</hd> <hd id="AN0004055724-15">Within-Group Test of Significance for the MAKSS Pretest and Posttest Scores</hd> <ct id="AN0004055724-16"> Legend for Chart: A - Scale B - z Value C - Time 1: M D - Time 1: SD E - Time 1: n F - Time 2: M G - Time 2: SD H - Time 2: n A B C D E F G H Total -3.110[2] 167.42 13.18 15 181.21 15.11 13 Awareness -0.707 57.16 5.14 15 58.41 4.41 13 Knowledge -2.585[2] 56.98 3.93 15 61.93 5.99 13 Skills -2.909[2] 53.27 9.21 15 60.87 7.51 13</ct> <p>Note. See Table 1 Note. (Range 20-80 for each subscale and 60-240 for the total scale.) The higher the score the greater the self-reported multicultural counseling competencies.</p> <p>2 p < .01.</p> <hd1 id="AN0004055724-17"> references </hd1> <p>Allison K. 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The inclusion of culturally sensitive course materials in graduate school and training programs. Psychotherapy, 22, 461-468.</p> <aug> <p>By Carlos M. Diaz-Lazaro</p> <p></p> <p>Carlos M. Diaz-Lazaro is a doctoral student in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York.; Correspondence regarding this article should be sent to Carlos M. Diaz-Lazaro, University at Buffalo, Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, Christopher Baldy Hall, Room 403, Buffalo, NY 14260-1000 (cmdiaz@acsu.buffalo.edu).</p> <p>B. Beth Cohen is the clinical director of Psychological Services and assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. This article is based on proseminar research conducted by the first author under the supervision of the second author. Both authors thank students on their research team and Janice DeLucia-Waack, Thomas Frantz, and Amy Reynolds for their insightful comments on the development of this article.</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib6" firstref="ref1"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib4" firstref="ref2"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib2" firstref="ref3"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib1" firstref="ref4"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib3" firstref="ref9"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib5" firstref="ref11"></nolink>
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  Data: Cross-Cultural Contact in Counseling Training.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Competence%22">Competence</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Counselor+Characteristics%22">Counselor Characteristics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Counselor+Training%22">Counselor Training</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cross+Cultural+Training%22">Cross Cultural Training</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cultural+Awareness%22">Cultural Awareness</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cultural+Pluralism%22">Cultural Pluralism</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Program+Effectiveness%22">Program Effectiveness</searchLink>
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  Data: Reports on the importance of cross-cultural contact in the development of multicultural counseling competencies (MCCs). Results reveal that the greater the prior cross-cultural life experience, the higher were students' MCCs measured at the beginning of a multicultural counseling course. MCCs measured at the end of the course were significantly higher than MCCs measured at the beginning. (Contains 35 references and 2 tables.) (Author/GCP)
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