Willingness of counselors in training to accept low socioeconomic status and ethnic clients

Marsella Kay Schrader, Purdue University

Abstract

This study was initiated to investigate the willingness of counselors in training to accept ethnic and low socioeconomic status clients. Three other variables thought to be related to acceptance were investigated: level of belief in a just world, level of cultural knowledge, and multicultural counseling coursework. An instrument was developed to assess acceptance, using client descriptions and a rating scale. Respondents were also asked to provide reasons for their choices. Subjects were masters' level counseling students at fifteen universities from twelve states. The treatement group consisted of students enrolled in a multicultural counseling course. Control subjects were students enrolled in counseling coursework but not in a multicultural class. Analysis of variance and content analyses were used. Willingness to accept the low socioeconomic status (LSES) client was unrelated to belief in the justice of the world. However, subjects who scored higher in cultural knowledge were significantly more accepting of LSES clients than subjects who scored lower in cultural awareness. This did not hold true for ethnic clients, however. Age, sex, socioeconomic status of origin, and ethnicity were also investigated. No demographic variables were related to Just World Scale scores. Nonethnic subjects scored significantly higher than ethnic subjects on the Test of Cultural Knowledge. Treatment group means increased for both men and women, but the difference was insignificant for women and significant for men. Only sex interacted with acceptance of the ethnic client. Males were less accepting of ethnic clients than females at pretest and significantly more accepting of ethnic clients at posttest. Content analysis of respondents' reasons revealed that high socioeconomic status clients, both ethnic and nonethnic, were more often chosen than low socioeconomic status clients. The clients most often rejected were low socioeconomic status ethnic clients. The most frequently used reasons for preferring clients were counselor ability to help the client and appreciation of client personal characteristics. The most frequently used reasons for rejecting a client were inability to help the client and dislike of client personal characteristics.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Segrist, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Academic guidance counseling

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