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This article explores the factor structure of the School Counselor Multicultural Self-Efficacy Scale (SCMES).For this study, a total of 181 usable scales were returned by members of the American School Counselor Association.Exploratory factor analysis on the 90-item scale suggested a six-factor structure.The six factors or subscales that evolved were (a) Knowledge of Multicultural Counseling Concepts, (b) Using Data and Understanding Systemic Change, (c) Developing Cross-Cultural Relationships, (d) Multicultural Awareness, (e) Multicultural Assessment, and (f) Applying Racial Concepts to Practice.Ethnicity and the number of multicultural counseling courses taken were significantly related to several of the SCMES's factors.Implications for future research and practice are delineated. Article:Self-efficacy theory is a popular framework for which to examine human motivation (Graham & Weiner, 1996), primarily because of its predictive power and application for practically any behavioral task.For this reason, we have selected self-efficacy theory as the basis for understanding professional school counselors' motivation and capabilities to perform tasks that are relevant and specific to equity and diverse student populations.We believe that school counselor multicultural self-efficacy is an important construct because it could predict professional school counselors' perceptions of their capability to perform specific tasks and their likelihood to overcome obstacles that might prevent them from achieving or completing those tasks in schools.We believe this is a critical aspect of professional school counseling that must be examined, given the increasing student diversity of U.S. schools and the movement to restructure school counseling programs for higher achievement among minority student populations.If professional school counselors do not perceive that they are capable of performing tasks related to equity and diversity, then they will likely avoid those tasks or downplay the importance of such tasks.
Holcomb‐McCoy et al. (Fri,) studied this question.