Suzette L. Speight

Multicultural Competence, Social Justice, and Counseling Psychology: Expanding Our Roles:

The construct of multicultural competence has gained much currency in the counseling psychology literature. This article provides a critique of the multicultural counseling competencies and argues that counseling psychologys operationalization of multicultural competence must be grounded in a commitment to social justice. Such a commitment necessitates an expansion of our professional activities beyond counseling and psychotherapy. While counseling is one way to provide services to clients from oppressed groups, it is limited in its ability to foster social change. Engaging in advocacy, prevention, and outreach is critical to social justice efforts, as is grounding teaching and research in collaborative and social action processes.

Racial Identity and Racial Socialization Attitudes of African American Parents

This study explores racial socialization messages used by African American parents, specific messages according to the gender of children, and the relationship between racial socialization and racial identity attitudes as measured by the Racial Identity Attitude Scale. One hundred four African American parents participated in the study. Racial socialization was seen as important to the vast majority of parents and they reported a wide variety of socialization messages. Chi-square analysis suggests that messages differ according to gender. Multiple regression analysis suggests that internalization attitudes contribute to 19% of the variance of racial socialization attitudes, indicating that parents with internalization attitudes are more likely to view racial socialization as important. Implications and limitations of the investigation are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented.

Gendered racism, psychological distress, and coping styles of African American women.

This study explores the relationship of the accumulative effect of gendered racism, the discrimination felt by African American women, on psychological distress. The study also explores whether coping serves as a mediating variable between gendered racism and psychological distress. Over 300 African American women participated in the study and were administered the Symptoms Checklist 90, a revised version of the Schedule of Sexist Events, and the Africultural Coping Styles Inventory. A positive significant relationship between global psychological distress was found with experiences of gendered racism. Regression analyses suggest some degree of partial mediation on the relationship between gendered racism and global psychological distress via cognitive-emotional coping styles, but no mediating effects with spiritual-centered, collective, and ritual-centered coping. Suggestions for future research and implications are discussed.

Racial Identity Attitudes, School Achievement, and Academic Self-Efficacy Among African American High School Students

Literature has postulated that African American students often choose not to succeed in school because achievement is seen as acting White. This study examined the extent to which racial identity, self-esteem, and academic self-concept were related to academic achievementfor 86African American high school students. The majority of students indicated supportfrom both peers and parents for their academic work. Multiple regression analysis indicated that grade point average is best predicted by immersion racial identity attitudes and academic self-concept. Limitations of the present study, implications, and suggestionsforffuture research are presented.

Internalized Racism One More Piece of the Puzzle

In this issue, Robert T. Carter has made an important contribution to the literature in clinical psychologists’ understanding of the psychological injury caused by experiences of racism. However, Carter’s focus on specific encounters with racism might be narrow and limited. The author of this reaction contends that racial incidents (i.e., discrimination, racial harassment, and discriminatory harassment) represent only one of the ways that racism injures its victims. The internalization of racism might be even more damaging. Accordingly, she herein examines the concept of internalized racism as one more piece of the puzzle necessary for elucidating psychological injury that is due to racism.

A Social Justice Agenda Ready, Or Not?

This commentary highlights the innovative inclusion of social action groups in the 2001 Houston Conference and expands on their significance to the conference and the field. If the 2001 Houston Conference has correctly forecast a (re)establishment of social action as a mainstay of counseling psychology, then an in-depth exploration of how we train students, conduct research, and engage in practice is warranted. Given the political nature of social action and its inextricable connection to social justice, the implications of such a stance for the future of the profession are discussed.

Racial Self-Designation, Racial Identity, and Self-Esteem Revisited.

The present study examined the relationships among racial self-designation, racial identity attitudes, self-esteem, and demographic variables in a diverse sample ofM232AfricanAmericans. Reasonsfor particular racial self-designations were explored qualitatively. Results indicated significant differences in prefer-ences for particular racial labels; 41% preferred Black and 30%o preferred African American. A content analysis of reasons for preferences indicated that participants preferring the term Black primarily appeared to have no particular ideological reasonfor choosing that term. However, those participants preferring the term African American indicated reasons related to its symbolic, political, and cultural meaning. Furthermore, preencounter and immersion racial identity attitudes varied significantly, according to racial self-designation. Gender, income level, and educational level were each significantly correlated with various racial identity attitudes. The implications of the results and the limitations of the study are also discussed.

Factors Influencing the Ally Development of College Students

Allies represent a crucial faction in the work for social justice; as members of the dominant population who advocate for the oppressed, they are important collaborators in this struggle. This qualitative inquiry investigated the ally development of 13 college students at a religiously affiliated institution in a Midwestern urban area. The interviews yielded several common factors, including personality qualities, family influence, faith, and realizations of Otherness. Implications for fostering the development of allies are discussed along with suggestions for future research.

John Henryism, Depression, and Perceived Social Support in Black Women

John Henryism, a construct developed to describe high effort coping, may help explain the observed health disparities between Blacks and Whites. Previous research suggests that John Henryism is associated with negative physical health factors. However, little research has focused on the relationship between John Henryism and psychological distress. Accordingly, in this exploratory study, we examined the relationships between John Henryism, psychological distress, and well-being in a diverse sample of Black women. Results indicate that there is a negative correlation between John Henryism and depressive symptomatology. This finding is in contrast to past research and suggests that John Henryism may be maladaptive to physical health but not mental health. The limitations and implications of the findings are discussed.

The Challenge of Social Justice for School Psychology

This commentary suggests that a critical dialogue about the role of social justice within the practice of school psychology is needed for the field to embrace and advance a social justice agenda.