Factors Influencing the Multicultural Competence of Occupational Therapists in South Korea.

Cross-sectional design: everything was measured at one time point, so the study cannot show that empathy, openness, or language ability cause higher competence — they may simply travel together. All measures were self-report questionnaires; a therapist who rates themselves as highly empathetic may also rate their own competence more generously. The authors note that ethnocultural empathy and cultural competence share a conceptual foundation (both involve navigating interactions with culturally diverse people), so the strongest 'prediction' may partly reflect measuring the same underlying ability twice. Snowball sampling in one country (South Korea) with 153 participants limits how far the findings can be generalised. Only one participant self-rated their English as 'advanced,' so the variable was collapsed into two groups (low vs. intermediate-or-advanced), which reduces the precision of the language finding. The study did not measure organisational or systemic factors (e.g., whether the workplace provides interpreters, cultural training, or multilingual materials) that a therapist would actually encounter in practice.

Funded by Chosun University (grant K207830003, 2024). The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Do not read the strong association between ethnocultural empathy and cultural competence as evidence that empathy training will raise a therapist's competence score. The two constructs overlap conceptually, both describe how a person navigates interactions with culturally different people, so the 'prediction' may partly be the same thing measured twice. In addition, the design is a one-time self-report survey, so no causal or training conclusion can be drawn.