The Counselor Color Consciousness Scale: Evidence for Relevance, Reliability, and Validity

The purpose of the current investigation was to develop the Counselor Color Consciousness Scale (CCCS) that was constructed based on Ridley’s (1995, 2005) theoretical conceptions of this construct. This study aimed to assess the relevance, reliability, and validity of the CCCS as a scientific tool measuring racial attitudes of white therapists and their work with clients of color. The sample consisted of 73 white therapists in Study 1, and 118 white therapists in Study 2. Both studies used a web survey format.

Overall, the results were noteworthy in several respects. First, the CCCS showed high internal consistency in both studies. Second, the CCCS demonstrated discriminant and convergent validity. More specifically, the CCCS was significantly correlated, in the hypothesized directions, with multicultural knowledge, confidence in the counseling relationship, an avoidant racial attitude, a dissonant racial attitude, and color blind racial attitudes (and each of its subscales). Finally, the CCCS demonstrated concurrent validity by being correlated, in the hypothesized direction, with the constructs of public and private self-consciousness, affective empathy, and self-monitoring.

These findings highlight the fact that the CCCS can be a new variable to be used in multicultural research. Other implications of these findings for theory, practice, and research, the limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed.