The Multicultural Competence (MC) movement---the movement to identify and promulgate therapist competencies that improve therapy processes and outcomes with diverse clients---has steadily gained support and acceptance within the wider psychology professions. However, nearly three decades after the inception of the movement, scholars have begun to note important limitations in the body of research on MC. Most notably, empirical studies that identify, validate, or accurately measure the MC construct are lacking. The limits of progress in these research areas have potentially jeopardized the movement to decline in influence. One of the most prominent proposed MC models, which states that MC is composed of attitudes/beliefs, knowledge, and skills has yet to be empirically validated.

The current study posits the importance of developing better tools to reflect one aspect of Multicultural Competence---Multicultural Knowledge (MK)---and presents the construction process of items and initial validation procedures. The potential uses of the proposed cognitive test of MK include its ability to provide greater empirical validation and assessment of the broader MC construct. It is posited that development of the proposed cognitive knowledge test of MK is an improvement over current methods to assess MC because existing measures rely on the self-report method. Self-reported MC measures have been limited as an accurate tool of assessing MC because scholars note their associations with related, but distinct, constructs such as social desirability. Moreover, it is believed that such self-report measures also assess one's anticipated behaviors and self-efficacy beliefs.

In order to examine the construct validity of the proposed cognitive MK items, its associations with multicultural training activities, self-assessed MC, social desirability, and self-efficacy are investigated. Results show that the sample of MK items developed had a modest, but acceptable reliability. In addition, modest construct validity was established through discriminant and criterion-related validity evidence with measures testing other constructs. The results also indicated that self-report MC measures may be a reflection primarily of self-efficacious beliefs about being able to work with cultural and ethnic minority clients, as well as a reflection of one’s positive disposition to doing so. The implications and directions for future empirical research on the MC construct are discussed.