Counseling Competence Scale on Refugees The researchers report the development of the Counseling Competence Scale on Refugees (CCSR) to respond to

Transcription

1 Counseling Competence Scale on Refugees The researchers report the development of the Counseling Competence Scale on Refugees (CCSR) to respond to the need for assessing the counseling competence on refugees. The absence of an adequate assessment of counseling competence contributes to a misdiagnosis of refugee clients (Clark, Anderson, Clark, & Williams, 1999). Thus, we had three reasons for development of this scale. One, the CCSR responds to a decades-old call that if clinicians want to effectively help refugees, they must understand refugees culturally specific struggles (e.g., acculturation, leaving their home country, etc.). Specifically, theorists (Sue & Sue, 2012) develop a conceptual model that organizes the multicultural counseling competence, including awareness, knowledge, and skills. Unfortunately, there has been lacking an application of this theoretical foundation to refugees. For example, Sue and Sue explained that the constructs of multicultural counseling competence developed primarily for clinicians to serve racially different clients, rather than refugees. Refugees have their cultural heritage and experiences of leaving their countries and racial oppression resulted in a framework different from that of other groups. Thus, most current multicultural counseling competence measures fail to include assessment targeting on serving refugees (Constantine & Sue, 2006; Ridley, 2005; Sue & Sue, 2008). Three, some scholars have found refugees demonstrate their strengths when living in a new or host country. Thus, a component of counseling competence should include clinicians' recognition of refugees' strengths (Pieterse & Carter, 2007). This empirical evidence suggests that strengths and resilience have distinct roles for refugees. Method Participants and Procedure. Our online survey was completed by 168 counselors and trainees; 89 (53%) were White and 79 (47%) were racial minorities, aging from 21 to 43 years old. Participants completed an online questionnaire package containing the CCSR, MCKAS, BIDR., M-GUDS-S, and a demographic questionnaire. Instruments. Demographic questionnaire. Participants provided information about their sex, age, and categories of race/ethnicity. In addition, participants were asked to indicate the amount of multicultural training they had received by specifying the number of multicultural courses, multicultural research projects, and workshops in which they participated or completed for their graduate training (Sodowsky et al., 1998). CCSR. The CCSR measures participants competence in counseling refugee clients. The 35 items in the CCSR were randomly ordered. Participants were asked to indicate their responses by using the following 5-point response scale: 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Sample items are I help my refugee clients recognize how their positive characters contribute to their personal growth and I feel capable of helping refugee clients discuss their cultural identity and adapting to the host culture. MCKAS. MCKAS includes two subscales: Multicultural Awareness (MCKAS Awareness; 12 items) and Multicultural Knowledge (MCKAS Knowledge; 20 items). Among many measures on MCC, MCKAS is the only measure that has controlled for participants social desirability (Ponterotto et al., 2002). Participants rate items on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all true) to 7 (totally true), with a higher score indicating a higher level of multicultural awareness and knowledge. Sample items include I am aware that being born a minority in this society brings with it certain challenges that White people do not have to face (MCKAS Awareness) and I am knowledgeable of acculturation models for various ethnic minority groups (MCKAS Knowledge). Higher scores indicate higher multicultural competencies in the specified area. Coefficient alphas of the MCKAS subscales ranged from.75

2 to.85 for the MCKAS Awareness and.85 to.95 for the MCKAS Knowledge subscales in psychology trainee samples (Neville et al., 2006; Ponterotto et al., 2002). The present sample had coefficient alphas of.82 for MCKAS Awareness,.91 for MCKAS Knowledge, and.92 for the total score. Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR). The BIDR (Paulhus, 1991) measures the tendency to respond and exhibit behaviors or thoughts that are viewed as socially desirable, yet not accurate representations of the person s attitudes or beliefs (Paulhus & Reid, 1991). The BIDR consists of 40 items with two subscales of 20 items each that evaluate impression management and self-deception. We followed Paulhus s (1984) recommendation that impression management, but not self-deception, be controlled in self-reports of personality (p. 598) and included items about impression management. Sample items of management impression include I never swear or I don t gossip about other people s business. In the current study, a coefficient alpha of.83 was obtained. The impression management subscale has been shown to posi- tively associate with other impression management scales (Sanzo, 2010), thus demonstrating its convergent validity. Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale Short Form (M-GUDS-S). The M-GUDS-S (Fuertes et al., 2000) measures participants overall orientation toward cultural diversity. Fuertes et al. conducted three factor-analytic studies resulting in a 15-item scale with high correlations between the corresponding subscales on both the long and short forms of the M-GUDS-S. They also noted that the three Sample items include Knowing different experiences of other people helps me understand my problems better and I attend events where I might get to know people from different racial backgrounds. Responses to items involve a 5-point Likert-type response mode ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). A total score ranged from 1 to 75, with a higher score indicating more OTD. The M-GUDS-S demonstrated adequate psychometrics using a White college sample. The coefficient alphas for the total score ranged from.73 (Thompson, Brossart, Carlozzi, & Miville, 2002) to.83 (Singley & Sedlacek, 2004). Our sample had a coefficient alpha of.88. Results Exploratory Factor Analysis. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis and the 35 items underwent a principal-components factor analysis with varimax rotation and an eigenvalue greater than 1. The Table 1 shows the four factors: knowledge, awareness, skills, and recognition of refugees' strengths. Internal consistency and subscale inter correlations. The coefficient alphas for the new CCSR subscales were from.80 to.90. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients would be calculated to determine the subscale intercorrelations of the CCSR. Concurrent validity. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were computed between the CCSR and these scales to examine the current validity. The CCSR were appropriately correlated with these scales: MCKAS (.84), Social Desirability (-.71), and the Openness to Diversity (.80), so as to establish the concurrent validity of the CCSR. Discussion Our research sought to develop and validate a new instrument that measures the clinicians' counseling competence when they work with refugees. The theoretical framework in developing this measure was generated from an integration of Sue and Sue's multicultural competence and positive psychology with the strength concept of refugees. It was found that a principal-components analysis supported a five-component structure as best representing the experiences in the daily lives of refugees. We also found that the five subscales of the CCSR

3 demonstrated adequate internal reliabilities, and the current validity with other scales. The results of our research present critical implications on research and practice. The CCSR will provide counselors a culturally sensitive checklist to evaluate clinicians' competence when helping refugees.

4 References Clark, R., Anderson, N. B., Clark, V. R., & Williams, D. R. (1999). Racism as a stressor for African Americans: A biopsychosocial model. American Psychologist, 54, Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffins, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Oishi, S. (2002). Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and life satisfaction. In C. R. Snyder and S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp ). New York: Oxford. Dreger, R. M., & Brabham, J. L. (1987). Two clinical validation studies on the state form and types of reliability of the trait form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Multivariate Experimental Clinical Research, 8, Essed, P. (1990). Everyday racism: Reports from women of two cultures. Claremont, CA: Hunter House. Landrine, H., & Klonoff, E. A. (1996). The schedule of racist events: A measure of racial discrimination and a study of its negative physical and mental health consequences. Journal of Black Psychology, 22,

5 Table 1 Counseling Competence Scale on Refugees Recognizing and Fostering Refugees' Strengths Despite their horrific experiences, refugee clients can still build positive relationship with others. (.82). Refugee clients possess resiliency to better adjust in host countries. (.82) I recognize my refugee clients' personal strengths. (.79). I recognize that most refugees have appreciation for life. (.71) I facilitate my refugee clients to see their personal strength. (.68) I help my refugee clients recognize how their positive characters contribute to their personal growth. (.66) I facilitate my refugee clients to believe in themselves. (.59) Skills I feel competent in providing culturally relevant services to address the mental health needs of refugees. (.87) I can assist refugee clients to process their experiences. (.82) I can help refugees to increase to their awareness of cultural identity. (.76) I am skillful in exploring refugee acculturation experiences. (.73) I feel capable of helping refugee clients discuss their cultural identity and adapting to the host culture. (.71) When listening to refugee clients' experiences of adversity, I am good at incorporating their personal stories into my therapy. (.65) Awareness I am aware that I have grown professionally resulting from my work with refugee clients. (.73) I use my curiosity about refugees' lives as a therapeutic tool. (.67) I can help my refugee clients to meet their practical resettlement needs. (.56) Knowledge I can help my refugee clients in ways besides individual counseling (e.g., advocacy). (.62) I assist refugee clients to identify legal resources. (.56) I can assist my refugee clients to engage into direct practical services (e.g., housing, etc.). (.49)