School counselors' perceptions of biracial children: a pilot study

Professional School Counseling, Dec, 2002 by Henry L. Harris

Procedure

The school counselors who participated in this pilot study were selected primarily because of their location in the Southeastern region of the United States. The address of each school was obtained by contacting the central office or by searching each district's Web site. Individual packets were mailed to each school addressed to the attention of the school counselor. A decision was made by the researcher to mail the elementary schools only one packet because they typically had only one counselor on staff. The middle and high schools were mailed two individual packets because in most schools, but not all, they had two or more counselors on staff. The packet included a cover letter, the survey, and a business reply self-addressed return envelope. The cover letter informed participants about the purpose of the survey and assured them their responses would remain confidential. The cover letter also provided participants with the phone number and e-mail address of the researcher to answer any potential questions or concerns. Due to limited funding and resources, follow-up reminders were not sent out to individual school counselors.

Research Design

Survey research is one form of quantitative descriptive research and, according to Babbie (1979), the objectives are to describe, explain, or explore phenomena. This research project, exploratory in design, is most often used when little is known about a phenomenon and the researcher desires to learn more about it (Heppner, Kivlighan, & Wampold, 1999). In this case, the phenomenon was school counselors' perceptions of biracial children. Descriptive statistics were computed for all items on the survey. Chi square analysis was employed to investigate possible associations between school counselors' perceptions and school level, years of counseling experience, gender, and the existence of cultural diversity programs in schools.

RESULTS

What Personal Perceptions Do School Counselors Have Concerning Biracial Individuals?

Sixty-seven percent of the school counselors did not believe society openly accepted biracial children, and 43% indicated they would have a difficult time adjusting to society (see Table 1). When biracial children's social skills and attitudes toward adults were compared with other children, 63% (n = 214) of the school counselors sensed there was no such difference, 26% (n = 78) indicated there was a difference, and 11% (n = 36)were uncertain. Ninety-three percent of the participants supported the belief that biracial children should culturally identify with both parents. However, when addressing the opinion that it was in the best interest socially and psychologically for biracial children to live in a neighborhood reflecting the minority, only 38% of the school counselors disagreed, while over half (52%) answered unsure (see Table 1).

What Personal Counseling Experience Do School Counselors Have With Biracial Individuals?

The results showed that 82% (n = 262) of the school counselors reported having some personal counseling experience with biracial individuals. In addition, 82% (n = 270) of the respondents indicated they would feel comfortable providing counseling services to biracial students. Forty-four percent (n = 143) of the school counselors expressed the opinion they did not need additional preparation or information to more effectively provide counseling services to biracial students. However, 45% (n = 146) held contrary positions, suggesting a desire for additional information and preparation.