Mental Health Practitioners: The Relationship Between White Racial Identity Attitudes and Self-Reported Multicultural Counseling Competencies

Abstract

Throughout the preceding 3 decades (Arredondo-Dowd & Gonsalves, 1980; Pedersen, 1987; Sue, 1977; Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992; Sue & Sue, 1977), a strong call has emerged within the counseling profession advancing the proposition that it is imperative to prepare mental health professionals who are multiculturally competent. Arguments to support this movement address the utilitarian goals of good counseling as well as humanitarian and ethical concerns (Pedersen, 1991). The call for clinical multicultural competence has been formalized in program accreditation standards (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2005; American Psychological Association [APA], 2003b; Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, 2001), provider guidelines (APA, 1993, 2003a), licensing and certification regulations, and statements of professional identity by counseling and psychology professional groups (Pedersen, 1991; Speight, Thomas, Kennel, & Anderson, 1995). The preponderance of counseling and psychology clinical practitioners in the United States are members of the majority racial/ethnic cultural group, commonly identified as European American (Pedersen, 1997). Therefore, it is important to determine the preparedness of European Americans to deliver culturally competent counseling services in a pluralistic society. One factor that may influence multicultural counseling competency is the racial identity development status of the practitioner. Racial identity has been theorized to significantly affect cross-racial counseling relationships (Helms, 1984, 1995). Racial identity development influences the quality of an individual's racial group identification. Identification with the racial group is tempered by the manner in which the individual internalizes racism and oppression (Kohatsu & Richardson, 1996). Helms's (1995) White racial identity model is developmental in nature and has been reformulated so that the process is seen as dynamic. Statuses in the Helms model are defined as the dynamic cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes that govern a person's interpretation of racial information in her or his interpersonal environments. The statuses range from least developmentally mature or sophisticated to most mature or sophisticated. Maturity not only pertains to whether a status has evolved within the ego of the individual but also addresses whether the status is strong enough to be called upon to assist the person in coping with racial material. All individuals have a primary or dominant status from which they tend to operate in most situations that they interpret as involving racial information (Helms, 1984, 1995). A person may also react or respond at the level of secondary statuses that are potentially accessible under the certain circumstances, and these secondary statuses are part of the person's personality profile. Thus, an individual's attitudes, behaviors, and emotions may be reflective of more than one status. Investigation of racial identity has focused almost exclusively on historically underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, particularly African Americans (Cross, 1978; Parham & Helms, 1981, 1985a, 1985b). In general, studies suggest a strong association between positive mental health attributes and those stages of Black racial identity characterized by secure, positive identification with one's Blackness (Ponterotto, 1988). Prior to the work of Helms (1984, 1993) and Ponterotto, very little research examined the racial identity development of European Americans, the majority cultural group in the United States. However, since that time, researchers have begun to recognize the importance of examining the racial identity development or ego statuses of European Americans, who represent the majority of professionals providing counseling services (Burkhard, Ponterotto, Reynolds, & Alfonso, 1999; Helms, 1984, 1995; Ottavi, Pope-Davis, & Dings, 1994; Sabnani, Ponterotto, & Borodovsky, 1991; Tokar & Swanson, 1991; Vinson & Neimeyer, 2000). …