Effects of client race on clinical judgment of African American undergraduate students in rehabilitation

Two randomly assigned groups of African American undergraduate students in rehabilitation services were asked to review case materials of a client who was portrayed as African American to one group and as European American to the other. Participants rated the client in terms of their clinical impressions and estimates of future potential. In Rosenthal and Berven's (1999) similar study, European American students rated the European American client as having higher educational and employment potential than the African American client. In our study, African American students rated the African American client as having higher educational potential than the European American client. In addition, across all four of the other independent measures (general evaluation, psychopathology-conduct, psychopathology-substance abuse, and vocational potential), African American participants demonstrated no bias against the African American client or the European American client. The differential findings of these two studies and their implications for education and future research are discussed.