Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Racial Bias In The Association Of Externalizing Symptoms With Black And White Children: The Development And Application Of An Implicit Association Test, Maura Francis

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that school and mental health professionals more strongly associate externalizing behaviors with Black children compared to White children. To test this hypothesis, we developed an implicit association test to determine if there was a difference in the reaction times in classifying symptoms as externalizing when the symptoms were paired with the word “Black Child” as opposed to paired with the word “White Child”. In a sample of 54 school and mental health professionals, we found clear evidence in support of our hypothesis. The existence of this implicit bias may explain …