Minority status,sex, and school psychological services

The sex and minority status of 355 students referred for psychological services from a random sample of schools in an urban school system were examined in relation to the frequency of referral, type of problem, and the nature of subsequent psychological services. A significantly higher percentage of both minority students and males were referred for psychological services; males were referred approximately twice as often as females. When referral problems were categorized as either academic or behavior problems, there were no differences between majority and minority students nor between males and females on percentage referred for each type of problem. Parent contacts were made significantly more often for majority students and for females, and recommendations to parents of majority students were more varied than those made to parents of minority students. Special Education resource services were recommended significantly more often for minority students. Possible reasons and implications of these findings are discussed.