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  • Title: Genetic counselors' implicit racial attitudes and their relationship to communication.
    Author: Schaa KL, Roter DL, Biesecker BB, Cooper LA, Erby LH.
    Journal: Health Psychol; 2015 Feb; 34(2):111-9. PubMed ID: 25622081.
    Abstract:
    OBJECTIVE: Implicit racial attitudes are thought to shape interpersonal interactions and may contribute to health-care disparities. This study explored the relationship between genetic counselors' implicit racial attitudes and their communication during simulated genetic counseling sessions. METHOD: A nationally representative sample of genetic counselors completed a web-based survey that included the Race Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998; Cooper et al., 2012). A subset of these counselors (n = 67) had participated in an earlier study in which they were video recorded counseling Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White SCs about their prenatal or cancer risks. The counselors' IAT scores were related to their session communications through robust regression modeling. RESULTS: Genetic counselors showed a moderate to strong pro-White bias on the Race IAT (M = 0.41, SD = 0.35). Counselors with stronger pro-White bias were rated as displaying lower levels of positive affect (p < .05) and tended to use less emotionally responsive communication (p < .10) when counseling minority SCs. When counseling White SCs, pro-White bias was associated with lower levels of verbal dominance during sessions (p < .10). Stronger pro-White bias was also associated with more positive ratings of counselors' nonverbal effectiveness by White SCs. CONCLUSION: Implicit racial bias is associated with negative markers of communication in minority client sessions and may contribute to racial disparities in processes of care related to genetic services.
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