THERAPY-SEEKING ATTITUDES AND RACIAL PREFERENCES FOR THERAPISTS: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AFRICAN AMERICANS AND CAUCASIAN AMERICANS

While the effects of negative attitudes on therapy and therapy-seeking and client/therapist racial matching have been widely researched, the findings are mixed and have yet to conclude if there are differences between African American and Caucasian American attitudes. The current study seeks to better understand how African American and Caucasian American participants differ in their attitudes toward therapy, therapy-seeking, and desires for a racially similar therapist. Procedure: Participants were recruited online via MTurk and participated in 2 Implicit Association Tests and 1 Questionnaire. Results: While there was no difference between the groups in terms of implicit or explicit attitudes toward therapy or therapy-seeking, on average, African Americans had neutral implicit attitudes toward race of therapist, but were more likely to explicitly prefer a similarly raced therapist than Caucasian Americans. The more negative an attitude toward therapy, the more a participant of either race preferred a similarly raced therapist.