ISSN: 2222-6990
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The present study examined the influence of counselling self-efficacy and emotional intelligence on multicultural counselling competence among secondary school counsellors in Pahang, Malaysia. The study aimed to determine the extent to which counsellors’ beliefs in their professional capabilities and their ability to manage emotional information predict their competence in handling clients with sexual orientation disorder. Employing a quantitative correlational design, data were collected from a sample of trained school counsellors through standardised instruments measuring counselling self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, and multicultural counselling competence. Descriptive and inferential analyses, including Pearson correlation and multiple regression, were performed to determine the relationships and predictive strength among variables. The findings revealed significant positive correlations between counselling self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, and multicultural counselling competence. Regression results indicated that both counselling self-efficacy and emotional intelligence were significant predictors of multicultural counselling competence, accounting for a substantial proportion of the variance. These findings underscore the importance of emotional awareness, professional confidence, and cultural sensitivity in ensuring effective counselling practices for clients with diverse sexual orientations. The study highlights implications for counsellor education, supervision, and multicultural training programmes in Malaysia.
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