Interracial commitment and involvement in undergraduate tutors in an inner-city preschool

Abstract

Interracial commitment of female undergraduates who volunteered to work as tutors with inner-city preschool children was compared with female nonvolunteer practicum students who also worked as tutors, and female undergraduates who had no contant with the children. The relationship between personal characteristics of the volunteer and the nonvolunteer tutors and tutor-child interaction was also investigated. Following work with the children, volunteer tutors were found to increase in interracial commitment, while nonvolunteer tutors decreased. Tutors who had tolerant, nondogmatic personalities and favorable attitudes towards ghetto persons and welfare recipients were more likely to be highly involved in their interaction with the children they tutored than were tutors with less favorable attitudes. High involved tutors were also found to be more critical of institutions which serve these client populations than were less involved tutors. Implications for future programs involving undergraduate mental health workers and selection of effective, involved mental health workers were discussed.