Australian mental health practitioners’ racial and ethnic blindness
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11207181 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Olga-Potitsa Stoumpos (Western Sydney University), Daniel Huang (0009-0006-5682-9477, Western Sydney University, corresponding author), Anita Eseosa Ogbeide (0000-0003-4650-0134, University of Tasmania), Ritesh Chimoriya (0000-0003-1121-2829, Translational Research Institute), Katarzyna Olcoń (0000-0002-3459-3823, University of Wollongong), Stephen Bolaji (0000-0001-9292-1541, Charles Darwin University), Tinashe Dune (0000-0001-5758-7525, Camden and Campbelltown Hospitals) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 112 |
| Pages | 102372 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Intercultural Relations (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0147-1767 • E-ISSN: 1873-7552 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2026.102372 |
| OpenAlex | W7125643333 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 31 |
Colour-blind racial and ethnic attitudes, often viewed as promoting equality, can negatively affect non-White individuals by ignoring colonial history, institutional racism, and discrimination. This study investigated how colour-blind attitudes are correlated with factors including demographic and cultural competence-related characteristics among 300 Australian mental health practitioners. Participants, aged 18 or older, were recruited through social media and professional associations, and completed an online survey with demographic questions and validated scales, including the Colour-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS) and the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR). Spearman’s rank-order correlations and multiple linear regression analyses were used to explore relationships between practitioners' colour-blind attitudes and demographic and cultural competence-related variables. The results showed that gender (β = 11.98, p < 0.001), occupation (β = 2.09, p < 0.001), years of work experience (β = 4.93, p < 0.001), and attendance of cultural competence training (β = 2.87, p < 0.01) were significantly associated with colour-blind attitudes. No significant relationship was found between BIDR scores and CoBRAS total scores (β = 0.03, p = 0.848). The study reveals that mental health practitioners in Australia adopt colour-blind racial and ethnic attitudes, indicating a need for enhanced cultural competence training to improve care for non-White clients and foster more inclusive mental health practices.
Blindness · Ethnic group · Mental health · Prejudice (legal term · Counseling Practices and Supervision · Mental Health Treatment and Access · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
Do Color Blindness and Multiculturalism Remedy or Foster Discrimination and Racism?
Are Women More Empathetic than Men? A Longitudinal Study in Adolescence
Relationship between White racial identity attitudes and self-reported multicultural counseling competencies.
Colour-Blind Attitudes among Welfare Professionals
Australian mental health care practitioners’ construing of non-White and White people
White and non-White Australian mental health care practitioners’ desirable responding, cultural competence, and racial/ethnic attitudes
Exploring Tertiary Health Science Student Willingness or Resistance to Cultural Competency and Safety Pedagogy
Decolonising Australian Psychology
Multicultural Training Experiences as Predictors of Psychology Students' Cultural Competence
In search of cultural competence in psychotherapy and counseling
Cultural competence and evidence-based practice in mental health services
Changes in White college students’ color-blind racial ideology over 4 years
Construction and initial validation of the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS)
Contemporary racism and Islamaphobia in Australia
Multicultural Counselor Training Experiences
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |