Counseling self-efficacy of international counseling students in the U.S: contributions of language anxiety, acculturation and social connectedness with American people

The purpose of this study was to examine the contributions of language anxiety, acculturation and social connectedness with American people to the counseling self-efficacy of international counseling students (ICSs) in the United States. The study used hierarchical multiple regression analysis with a sample of ICSs from counseling, counseling psychology and related programs in the U.S. (N=72). Major findings indicated that ICSs’ language anxiety was inversely associated with their counseling self-efficacy; neither ICSs’ acculturation nor social connectedness with American people had a significant relationship with counseling self-efficacy. Further, there was no significant interaction between language anxiety and social connectedness with American people; language anxiety, acculturation, social connectedness with American people, and the interaction between language anxiety and social connectedness with American people together did not account for a significantly different amount of variance in counseling self-efficacy over and above the variance accounted for by language anxiety alone. Implications, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.