Multicultural issues in sport psychology and consultation

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the nationality (United States vs. Japan), race (Caucasian vs. Minority), and gender of college student athletes influenced their access and exposure to, and interest in sport psychology consultations and their perceptions of several consulting issues. Another purpose was to examine the relationship between athletes' current and previous multicultural exposure and their preferences toward working with sport psychology consultants (SPCs) of differing backgrounds. The participants were American (n = 271) and Japanese (n = 302) collegiate athletes. Results revealed that Japanese athletes rated the importance of having consultants of the same gender, same race, same sport background, being knowledgeable about athlete's culture, having experience working with diverse populations, and being close in age higher than American athletes. American athletes were more likely to seek help from family members first for both mental skills and mental health issues, and Japanese athletes were more likely to seek help from teammates first for mental skills and friends first for mental health issues before resourcing SPCs.