TPC Journal V8, Issue 4- FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 8, Issue 4 317 CIT participants self-identified as female ( n = 61, 84.7%) and as male ( n = 11, 15.3%). A majority of counselors were between the ages of 21–26 ( n = 54, 75%), followed by 27–37 ( n = 18, 25%). CITs identified as White ( n = 48, 66.7%), African American/Black (non-Hispanic, n = 7, 9.7%), Hispanic/ Latino ( n = 7, 9.7%), Biracial/Multiracial ( n = 8, 11.1%), Asian ( n = 1, 1.4%), and Other ( n = 1, 1.4%). Procedure Approval to conduct the study was obtained from the university’s institutional review board and the clinical director of the counseling research center. First, the researcher administered the consent for research during CITs’ practicum orientation and explained the purpose and voluntary nature of the study. CITs received instructions on how to administer consent for research to clients. Counselors received small tokens (a mechanical pencil and a small piece of candy) from the researcher during the practicum orientation as an incentive to complete the surveys and provide them to clients. Clinic services where the research was conducted include free counseling. Clients were already receiving free counseling services, and if they chose not to participate in this study, they would still continue to receive free counseling. The researcher instructed CITs to provide clients with the explanation of research at the start of their first counseling session. If clients chose to participate, the CIT administered the Outcome Questionnaire 45.2 (OQ45.2; Lambert et al., 1996) assessment at the end of their first and third sessions in the counseling room. In addition, clients and CITs were instructed to complete the demographic questionnaire, the Cross-Cultural Counseling Inventory-Revised (CCCI-R; LaFromboise, Coleman, & Hernandez, 1991), the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Form (WAI-S; Horvath & Greenberg, 1989; Tracey & Kokotovic, 1989), and the Reynolds Marlowe-Crown Social Desirability Scale-Short FormA (SDS; Reynolds, 1982) after their third session was completed. Data were collected after completion of the third counseling session based on preliminary analysis on adult client retention rates at the counseling research center indicating that after the fourth counseling session, client retention rate drops by 60%. In addition, the working alliance is generally measured between the first and fifth sessions (Horvath & Bedi, 2002; Norcross, 2002). Data were entered and then analyzed by SPSS. Prior to beginning analysis, several preliminary analyses were conducted to explore relationships among variables. Assumptions for normality, homogeneity of variance, linearity, and multicollinearity were met. To reduce the likelihood of violating the assumption of independence, clients were used as a static variable, or a variable that only has one independent observation. Utilizing static variables was important due to the possibility for the same client to have received counseling services during the two semesters in which the researcher collected the data, increasing the potential violation for the assumption of independence. Thus, if the same client had multiple ratings on assessments, they were removed from the data set, resulting in the removal of three clients. Researchers used correlation analysis, hierarchical regression, and linear mixed-effects modeling to explore their research questions. Measures The CCCI-R (LaFromboise et al., 1991) was used to measure client and counselor perceptions of CIT multicultural counseling competence in this investigation. The CCCI-R was developed based on the multicultural competencies defined by the Education and Training Committee of Division 17 of the American Psychological Association (Sue et al., 1982). The CCCI-R is a 20-item assessment, rated on a 6-point Likert scale intended for observer report of a counselor’s level of cultural awareness, knowledge, and skill. LaFromboise and colleagues (1991) reported an overall internal consistency coefficient alpha of .95, with an inter-item correlation between .18 and .73. Although the CCCI-R was