TPC-Journal-V5-Issue3

419 The Professional Counselor Volume 5, Issue 3, Pages 419–430 http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org © 2015 NBCC, Inc. and Affiliates doi:10.15241/nni.5.3.419 Nathaniel N. Ivers, NCC, is an Assistant Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Counseling at Wake Forest University. José A. Villalba is a Professor and Associate Dean at Wake Forest University. Correspondence may be addressed to Nathaniel N. Ivers, Wake Forest University, Department of Counseling, P.O. Box 7406, Winston-Salem, NC 27109, iversnn@wfu.edu . Nathaniel N. Ivers, José A. Villalba The Effect of Bilingualism on Self-Perceived Multicultural Counseling Competence Ethnic and linguistic minorities continue to underutilize and prematurely terminate counseling services at higher rates than their ethnic majority counterparts. To improve the provision of counseling services to culturally diverse clients, new avenues supported by theory and research need to be uncovered. One factor that has received little empirical attention in the counseling and multicultural literature is bilingualism. This study examined the effect of bilingualism on counseling students’ multicultural counseling competence, while controlling for ethnicity and multicultural training. Results supported the hypothesis that bilingual counseling students would self-rate their multicultural counseling competence higher than would their monolingual counterparts. Implications for counselor training, counseling practice and future research are discussed. Keywords : bilingualism, multicultural counseling competence, multicultural training, ethnicity, counseling practice Over 30 years ago, Sue et al. (1982) urged members of the counseling profession to increase their efforts to train multiculturally competent counselors who possess the requisite knowledge, awareness and skills to meet the needs of culturally diverse clients. Sue et al. (1982) contended that traditional counseling approaches were myopic and monocultural, and contributed to the tendency for ethnic minority individuals to underutilize and prematurely terminate counseling services. Since 1982, the counseling profession has made great strides in improving counselors’ effectiveness in working with culturally diverse clients (Chao, 2012; Worthington, Soth-McNett, & Moreno, 2007). However, ethnic and linguistic minorities continue to underutilize and prematurely terminate counseling services at higher rates than their ethnic majority counterparts (Sentell, Shumway, & Snowden, 2007; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 2001). To continue to improve the provision of counseling services to culturally diverse clients, new avenues supported by theory and research need to be uncovered (Worthington et al., 2007). One factor that has received little attention in the counseling and multicultural literature is bilingualism. The purpose of this study was to expand the current bilingual counseling and multicultural counseling competency literature by examining the effect of bilingualism on counseling students’ self-perceived multicultural counseling competence (MCC). Multicultural Counseling Competence Since the introduction of the tripartite model of cross-cultural counseling competence (Sue et al., 1982), much has been accomplished with respect to MCC, and the model has been expanded (Sue, 2001; Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992; Sue et al., 1998) and operationalized (Arredondo et al., 1996). Mental health associations (e.g., American Counseling Association) have adopted multicultural