Multiculturally responsive counseling: Effects on Asian students’ ratings of counselors. By: Zhang, Naijian, Dixon, David N., Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 08838534, 20011001, Vol. 29, Issue 4.

As the multicultural nature of the population of the United States grows so does the need for more effective counseling skills. The population of international students in university in the United States has steadily increased from 47,245 in 1950 to 452,635 in 1995, and out of that 261,789 were Asians (Zhang and Dixon, 2001). All international students face many different problems when in the United States but for Asians those problems seem to be slightly amplified. The problems include: “language problems, cultures shock, homesickness, adjustment to U.S. social customs and norms, financial problems, racial or religious discrimination, climate, paranoia, depression , personality problems, role conflict and lack of self-confidence (Zhang and Dixon, 2001).” In order to be able to properly help international students, specifically Asians counselors need to develop effective skills and behaviors, for example this study looked at the effectiveness of cultually responsive counseling.

In order to look at the effectiveness of culturally responsive counseling Zhang and Dixon (2001) matched Asian students with counselors to discuss their adjustment to life in the US and to university life.  The participants were sixty Asian international students who were randomly selected out of the Asian population at a midwestern university, and six Caucasian counselors. The counselors consisted of three females and three males and they were all trained to be able to create a culturally responsive and culturally neutral condition. The counselors also role- played the two conditions until they were able to present them in a realistic manner. They also learned to say phrases in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Nepalese, and Thai in order to create a more responsive atmosphere.

The culturally responsive condition consisted of a room with crafts and pictures from Asia as well as a map on the table open to continent of Asia. The counselors also greeted the students in phrases that matched their respective native home. During the session the counselors also showed interest in their culture by asking questions about it and by asking them to show them on the map where their hometown is. The counselor also encouraged the students to talked about the non-verbal behavioral difference between their country and the United States. Finally as the session ended the counselor said goodbye in the native language of the student. In the culturally neutral condition none of these things were present, but the counselors did use the same counseling skills and  showed the same interest in both situations. Also in both of the situations the counselors discussed the same topic of cultural adjustment, homesickness, and adjustments to making friends and studying.

Zhang and Dixon (2001) used the Counselor Rating Form to measure the student’s opinion on the attractiveness, expertness and trustworthiness of the counselors. They also used another form to rate the counselor’s openness to different cultures and their ability to connect  and help students from different cultures. The procedure of the study consisted of having the counselors and students be randomly assigned to each other and the two conditions. Then the counselors connected by phone to the students in order to confirm the session between them. Finally the students were given the two forms and rated the counselors. 

The results of the study showed that by being multiculturally responsive the counselors were seen as more favorable by the students and they were seen to have a better ability to help students from different cultures due to their openness and ability to relate to people from  different cultures. The students did not show dislike for the culturally neural condition they just preferred the culturally responsive condition. Of course there were some limitation, such as the student were not really actively looking for counseling, they just volunteered. Another limitation was the lack of exploitation checks for both of the conditions. But in the end the study showed that having the counselors be more culturally responsive allowed the students to be more comfortable with the counselors and were perceived as being better at their job. As our country becomes more and more multicultural as does the schools; therefore, both school counselors and clinical counselors need to learn a new set of skills (being culturally responsive) to better serve their clients.