Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Among Social Work Students: Exploration of Individual and Social Network Correlates

Background and Purpose: Social work students are entering a profession that requires them to work closely with racially marginalized populations and pursue social justice. Their underlying attitudes about race and ethnicity may impact future service provision and affect the well-being of racially marginalized constituents. Therefore, it is critical for social work programs to foster positive attitudes surrounding race and ethnicity. Previous research suggests that individual attitudes can be shaped by personal attributes and social network properties. However, literature that explores correlates of attitudes towards race and ethnicity among social work students remains scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore attitudes surrounding race and ethnicity among social work students and identify personal and social network correlates of such attitudes. Understanding factors associated with social work students’ attitudes regarding race and ethnicity may help social work educators increase students’ capacity to work with racially marginalized individuals, improve service provision, and facilitate conversations on how to take an active role in tackling racism and dismantling systems of oppression. 

Methods:A sample of 166 BSW and MSW students were recruited using emails containing an anonymous, online survey link. The survey inquired about individual characteristics (e.g., participant race and attitudes toward race/ethnicity) and social network properties (e.g., participants’ perceived network peer attitudes and interactions with each member). Students’ attitudes toward race and ethnicity was measured using the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAs), which includes 3 subscales (unawareness of white privilege: 7 items with range= 7 - 42; unawareness of institutional racism: 7 items with range= 7 - 42; and unawareness of blatant racism: 6 items with range=6 - 36). Higher scores represent higher unawareness across all subscales. Linear regressions were conducted to investigate the association between students’ personal and network correlates and their attitudes toward race and ethnicity.

Results: Participants demonstrated awareness of white privilege (M=17.39; SD=6.81), institutional racism (M=16.05; SD=6.60), and blatant racism (M=9.91; SD=3.44). Being racially marginalized was associated with lower unawareness of institutional racism(β=-9.31; 95%CI=-16.45--2.17; P=0.01); self-identifying as politically liberal was negatively associated with unawareness of white privilege (β=-6.03; 95%CI=-9.19--2.87; P<0.001), institutional racism (β=-7.93; 95%CI=-10.75--5.11; P<0.001), and blatant racism (β=-2.64; 95%CI=-4.26--1.03; P=0.002). Having more network peers with whom participants talked to about race and ethnicity related issues was negatively associated with unawareness of white privilege (β=-0.73; 95%CI=-1.23--0.23; P=0.005), institutional racism (β=-0.54; 95%CI=-1.02--0.53; P=0.03), and blatant racism (β=-0.47; 95%CI=-0.73--0.23; P<.001).  

Conclusions and Implications: Based on our findings, social work educators should emphasize education surrounding institutional racism in curriculums, especially for programs with predominately white students. Social work educators should also acknowledge and respect students’ political views while ensuring that social work core values of diversity and inclusion regarding race and ethnicity are embraced. Finally, social work programs should facilitate social ties among students with whom they can positively discuss race and ethnicity related issues.