Minority Identity Development and Preference for Counselor Race

Efforts to date to determine if Black clients prefer Black counselors over White counselors have resulted in equivocal findings. Although a number of studies suggest that a preference for Black counselors does exist' other studies have found either no evidence of a racial preference2 or evidence that other counselor variables are more important than race in determining counselor preference.3 One explanation for this apparent discrepancy in past research is that researchers have failed to recognize intragroup differences among Blacks4 that may be reflected in subject populations. In a study that examined intragroup differences, Jackson and Kirshner5 found a significant relationship between preference for counselor race and racial self-designation; students who identified themselves as Afro-American or Blacks were more likely to prefer a same-race counselor than were students who identified themselves as Negro.