Social workers' attitudes toward adolescent clients from affluent, middle class, and poor families

Members of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) specializing in clinical work (n = 359) read a vignette describing a depressed adolescent client. In a between-subjects design, the client's family income level and gender were manipulated. After reading the vignette, participants rated the client on 15 adjectives, and they responded to questions on the seriousness of the problem, their ability to help the client, and the prognosis. Factor analysis of the adjectives indicated that responding workers conceptualized the adolescent client primarily along two dimensions, which were named "self-centered and entitled" and "competent."; Participants viewed a client described as having a family income "in excess of {dollar}400,000" as significantly more self-centered and entitled than an otherwise identical client described as having a family income "under {dollar}20,000." Clients from different family income groups were not perceived differently with respect to competence. Respondents also rated the problem of an affluent client as less serious than that of clients with lower family incomes. Finally, respondents also rated the parents of the client described as affluent less favorably than they rated the parents of clients described as having lower family incomes. Results were evaluated in terms of the need of the social work profession to address negative stereotypical views that workers hold with respect to affluent clients.