The relationship between personal characteristics, multicultural attitudes, and self-reported multicultural competence of graduate students

This study examined some of the underlying attitudes and psychological factors that may affect the self-reported multicultural competence of counseling professionals. Two subscales of the Personality Research Form, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, two subscales of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), the Quick Discrimination Index subscales, and the Multicultural Counseling Knowledge and Awareness Scale were administered to 129 graduate students in counseling. Results of regression analyses indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between Cognitive Racial Attitudes as measured by the Quick Discrimination Index and self-reported multicultural competence. Though a more limited relationship between personality variables and multicultural awareness and knowledge emerged, these variables did not contribute to the prediction equations. Implications for research and training are explored.