Exploring Self-Compassion, Empathy, and Intrinsic Spirituality as Predictors of Cultural Humility

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Rikard, T. (2022). Exploring Self-Compassion, Empathy, and Intrinsic Spirituality as Predictors of Cultural Humility. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Each year in the United States (U.S), one in five adults experience mental illness and one in six youth ages 6-17 experience a mental disorder (NAMI, 2020). While mental illness can affect individuals at similar rates, minority populations suffer from existent disparities in mental healthcare that have been exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19. Help-seeking behaviors of racial and ethnic minorities in the US have historically been influenced by the lack of trust in the medical system. When experiences of prejudice and discrimination are present in the counseling experience, they lead to damaging outcomes for minorities including misdiagnosis, receipt of less preferred forms of treatment, increased rate of premature termination, and overall dissatisfaction with service delivery in minority clients (Ridley et al., 2010; Rutgers University, 2019). Counselors who do not address biases, assumptions, and their own epistemological views risk operating within the oppressive framework of the dominant culture (Katz, 2014; Owen, 2017; Owen et al., 2018; Sue et al., 1992). Despite the growing support of cultural humility as complementary or even an alternative to cultural competence in counselor multicultural pedagogy, little has been examined about the ways in which this perspective can be enhanced in counselor education programs. Therefore, a standard multiple regression was utilized to examine the impact of intrinsic spirituality, common humanity, and affective empathy on cultural humility in counseling students (N=111). The participants in this study were mostly White (61%), female (79%), and from the southeast region (75%) of the United States. With regard to clinical sequence, most participants (41%) had not yet taken practicum or internship, while only a small percentage (2%) had completed all clinical training sequences. Results indicated that after controlling for all other variables, common humanity resulted in an increase in cultural humility. Common humanity contributed significantly to the prediction of cultural humility accounting for 16% of the variance, whereas affective empathy and spirituality did not. Implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Details
Author

Rikard, Tiffany

Title

Exploring Self-Compassion, Empathy, and Intrinsic Spirituality as Predictors of Cultural Humility

Physical Description

1 online resource (115 pages) : PDF

Date

2022

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Each year in the United States (U.S), one in five adults experience mental illness and one in six youth ages 6-17 experience a mental disorder (NAMI, 2020). While mental illness can affect individuals at similar rates, minority populations suffer from existent disparities in mental healthcare that have been exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19. Help-seeking behaviors of racial and ethnic minorities in the US have historically been influenced by the lack of trust in the medical system. When experiences of prejudice and discrimination are present in the counseling experience, they lead to damaging outcomes for minorities including misdiagnosis, receipt of less preferred forms of treatment, increased rate of premature termination, and overall dissatisfaction with service delivery in minority clients (Ridley et al., 2010; Rutgers University, 2019). Counselors who do not address biases, assumptions, and their own epistemological views risk operating within the oppressive framework of the dominant culture (Katz, 2014; Owen, 2017; Owen et al., 2018; Sue et al., 1992). Despite the growing support of cultural humility as complementary or even an alternative to cultural competence in counselor multicultural pedagogy, little has been examined about the ways in which this perspective can be enhanced in counselor education programs. Therefore, a standard multiple regression was utilized to examine the impact of intrinsic spirituality, common humanity, and affective empathy on cultural humility in counseling students (N=111). The participants in this study were mostly White (61%), female (79%), and from the southeast region (75%) of the United States. With regard to clinical sequence, most participants (41%) had not yet taken practicum or internship, while only a small percentage (2%) had completed all clinical training sequences. Results indicated that after controlling for all other variables, common humanity resulted in an increase in cultural humility. Common humanity contributed significantly to the prediction of cultural humility accounting for 16% of the variance, whereas affective empathy and spirituality did not. Implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Genre

doctoral dissertations

Subjects--Topics

Multicultural education
Counseling psychology
Education

Degree

Ph.D.

Keywords

Counselor Education
Counselor Education And Supervision
Cultural Humility
Multicultural Counseling
Self-Compassion

Subject Area

Counseling

Advisor(s)

Post, Phyllis

Committee Members

Harris, Hank
Merlin-Knoblich, Clare
Flowers, Claudia

Degree Note

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2022.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Rikard_uncc_0694D_13244

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:3171