The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 3 262 Personal and Social Resources The third theme emerged from multiple categories of personal and social resources that supported ICSs. In terms of personal resources, researchers identified several characteristics such as self-reflection, self-regulation, and self-efficacy, which contributed to ICSs’ professional development (e.g., DelgadoRomero & Wu, 2010; Interiano-Shiverdecker et al., 2019; Woo et al., 2015). Additionally, the sources of social support for ICSs included their peers and other ICSs (e.g., D. Li & Liu, 2020; Woo et al., 2015), faculty and mentors (e.g., Smith & Ng, 2009; Woo et al., 2015), department and college (e.g., DelgadoRomero & Wu, 2010; D. Li & Liu, 2020), and family (Kuo et al., 2018). Discussion The purpose of this content analysis was to provide an organized overview of counseling studies conducted for ICSs over the past 16 years both from quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The aggregated findings, including publication trends and content areas of ICS research, are expected to present the missing pieces in research to better understand and support ICSs and provide meaningful recommendations to better support their professional development. Specifically, we identified 18 articles published in selected counseling journals during the 16-year period from 2006 to 2021. Our findings included the journals, authorship and affiliation, research orientation, participant characteristics, data collection method, and content areas. In general, researchers from many educational institutions have conducted collaborative research focusing on ICSs, with a balance of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Research participants were ICSs at master’s and doctoral levels, with larger participant groups for quantitative studies and smaller groups for qualitative studies. The most frequently employed methods for data collection were online surveys and semi-structured interviews. Among the 18 identified ICS articles, three main content themes emerged, with each theme consisting of several categories. In terms of the content, counseling researchers have consistently examined the professional practices of ICSs in their programs. Our findings indicate that many researchers were interested in supervision as an essential aspect of counselor education. Supervision involves intricate dynamics between the supervisor, supervisee, and client, and it can have a substantial influence on counselor competency development (Falender & Shafranske, 2007; Nilsson & Dodds, 2006). For this reason, ICS research has focused not only on investigating the supervisory concerns, needs, and satisfaction of ICSs, but on providing an integrative supervision model for this population (Nilsson & Dodds, 2006; Park et al., 2017; Sangganjanavanich & Black, 2009). Beyond supervision, researchers have also explored other topics, including teaching preparation and social justice counseling (Delgado-Romero & Wu, 2010; D. Li & Liu, 2020). We found that researchers have attended to ICSs’ professional competencies as well as their training processes, including counseling self-efficacy, professional identity, and multicultural and social justice competencies (Kuo et al., 2021; C. Li et al., 2018; Smith & Ng, 2009). These professional competencies and training processes are regarded as important indices of successful and effective counselor training (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 2014; Woo et al., 2015). As a whole, ICS research has addressed diverse student training experiences and resultant developmental outcomes, although the absolute number of studies remains limited. Our results highlight cultural and language differences as a primary barrier for many ICSs when they initiated their study in a foreign country. This finding is consistent with previous studies, including Mori’s (2000) seminal work. Most studies we examined identified acculturation as a key construct of ICSs’ adjustment and growth in a foreign country (Interiano & Lim, 2018; Ng & Smith, 2012). Many ICS participants sought to maintain a balance between engaging in U.S. language and
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDU5MTM1