title: Caucasion allied health students' attitudes towards African Americans: implications for instruction and research.
abstract: In order to determine Caucasian allied health student racial attitudes towards the African American population, students and faculty of a Southern school of allied health professions were surveyed using the Racial Argument Scale (RAS). A one way ANOVA found a significant difference between allied health programs, p = .008, and post hoc testing found the Occupational Therapy Program's scores to be significantly lower (less negative towards Blacks) than the Physical Therapy and Physician Assistant Program's scores (p = .008 and p = .041 respectively). Student scores overall were significantly higher than faculty scores on the RAS (p = .014). The Speech-Language Pathology, Physician Assistant, and Physical Therapy Programs' scores as well the overall allied health student scores were found to be significantly higher than the population mean, thus indicating a higher negativity towards African Americans. The overall results of this study indicate that negative racial bias may be a serious problem in some allied health programs. Future instruction in cultural competency in allied health programs should address racial bias specifically, taking into account cognitive-perceptual errors that may perpetuate negative racial attitudes.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Steed
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000488:Allied Health Personnel / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D054521:Cultural Competency; D003479:Curriculum / Q000639:trends*; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D059825:Physical Therapists / Q000523:psychology; D010823:Physician Assistants / Q000523:psychology; D063505:Racism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015144:Southeastern United States; D013066:Speech-Language Pathology; D040443:Students, Public Health / Q000523:psychology*; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult