An Exploration of Variables that Contribute to Counseling Students’ Spiritual Competence Development: Implications for Counselor Education

Abstract

Spiritual competence is important for counselors-in-training (CIT) to appropriately and ethically address client issues relevant to spirituality and religion (S/R). This study examined the role of CIT’s institutional religious affiliation, training level, counselor self-efficacy, multicultural counseling competence, and program S/R training environment in predicting student spiritual competence. A convenience sample of 109 CIT was recruited and a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was applied. Although all variables reached statistically significant correlations with spiritual competence, only three of them demonstrated practical importance to predict such competence. These findings provide valuable implications for counselor education and future research regarding student spiritual competence development.