DEVELOPMENT OF THE MULTICULTURAL SCHOOL-PSYCHOLOGY COUNSELING COMPETENCE SCALE

The purpose of this study was to begin to delineate competencies neede d by school psychologists in the provision of counseling services to c ulturally diverse clients and to develop an exploratory measure of mul ticultural counseling competence in school psychology practice. The pr esent article discusses the development and preliminary psychometric c haracteristics of the Multicultural School Psychology Counseling Compe tency Scale (MSPCCS). The MSPCCS, which assesses trainers' perceptions of the multicultural school psychology counseling competencies of gra duating trainees, was administered to a national sample of directors o f school psychology training programs. Preliminary findings, based on a 57% return rate, suggest that the scale has good internal consistenc y reliability. Results of the factor analysis support a one factor sol ution for the scale. Specific considerations in the use of the scale a re discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented. (C) 1 997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.