Secondary school students’ preferences for school counsellors to be of the same ethnic origin as themselves

Abstract

Aims: This study looked at whether secondary school students would rather see a counsellor of the same ethnic origin as themselves, and whether this varied by ethnicity and gender. Method: A questionnaire survey was conducted with 761 students participating from two Glasgow secondary schools and four Belfast secondary/grammar schools. The study investigated participants’ responses to the question ‘Do you prefer speaking to a counsellor who is of the same ethnic origin as you?’ Results: Overall, the study found that 26.6% of students would rather see a counsellor of similar ethnic origin, 5.5% would rather not, 14.8% were not sure, and 53.1% did not mind. Students of white, Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) and non-specific ethnic origins did not differ significantly in how much they would rather see a counsellor from their own ethnic background; but students of a BME background were approximately three times more likely to express a preference for a counsellor not of their ethnic origin as compared with white students. It was also found that twice as many male students would prefer not to see a counsellor of the same ethnic origin as themselves, as compared with female students. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to other research and methodological limitations of this study are considered.

Keywords:

• Schools counselling
• ethnicity
• attitudes
• ethnic origin
• black and minority ethnic students