Multicultural Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills Among American Counselor Trainees: Group Differences in Self-Perceived Competence Based on Dispositional and Programmatic Variables

Multiculturalism has been a topic of scholarly discourse and inquiry for the last three decades. As the philosophical commitment to multiculturalism continues to be endorsed by the counseling field, it is becoming increasingly imperative that we integrate theory, research, and practice in an applied and compelling manner. This article provides the results from a quantitative study exploring the dispositional and programmatic variables that influence the level of self-perceived multicultural competence among a sample of counselor trainees in the United States of America. The research contributes to a foundation for discussing the current status of multicultural counseling competence as well as generating creative strategies for enhancing future competence in counselors.