Abstract:
This mixed methods research was aimed to (1) study a conceptual framework of the multicultural counseling competency in Thai context (2) develop and examine relevant psychometric properties of the multicultural counseling competency scale. There were two phase of study. The first phase was a qualitative study on experiences of the Thai multicultural counseling competencies through in-depth interviews with seven Thai counselors and the literature review. The key informants were met the set criteria and selected by using the purposive sampling technique. The second phase was a quantitative research developing and examining psychometric properties in the multicultural counseling competency scale. Participants for the second phase were 461 counselors, counseling service providers, graduate students in counseling psychology or guidance counseling, and 4th year undergraduates in psychology. There were from five regions of Thailand and selected using the purposive sampling. Data were analyzes by SPSS for Windows and LISREL. The qualitative findings revealed that the conceptual framework of multicultural counseling competency was composed of ten components: (1) Awareness of counselors own assumption of fundamental belief, attitude and cultural bias, (2) Awareness of counselors own assumption of fundamental cultural knowledge, (3) Awareness of counselors own assumption of cultural skills, 4) Understanding of clients worldview on fundamental belief, attitude and cultural bias, (5) Understanding of clients worldview on fundamental cultural knowledge, (6) Understanding of multicultural competency, (7) Continual self-development on fundamental belief, attitude and cultural bias, (8) Continual self-development on cultural knowledge, (9) Continual self-development on appropriate interventions and (10) Harmonious integration between professional and personal life. The quantitative evaluation of the technical adequacies of this scale revealed (1) the content validity as affirmed by guest specialists, (2) the criterion related validity tested against Social Desirability Scale: SDS Form C (r = .04, ns),The Working Alliance Inventory-Short Form (r = .48, p < .001), (3) the construct validity confirmed with the confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the model developed suited the empirical data (χ2 = 40.58; df = 28; p = .059; CFI = 1.00; GFI = .98; AGFAI = .95; SRMR = .03; RMSEA = .04; χ2/df = 1.45), the known-group technique (t = 3.71, p < .001), and (4) the overall Cronbachs alpha coefficient at .957.