PILOT 1 - Ethnic Differences in Perceived Impairment and Need for Care Parental belief that the child needs mental health care has been found to be the most significant factor associated with service use in non-minority populations. The results of several studies suggest that Latino parents are less likely than European Americans to recognize and/or label their children's behavior as a mental health problem requiring intervention. It is not clear which factors explain this lower recognition of mental health problems by Latino parents, and consequently the lower utilization of mental health services by this group. Differences between providers and parents in their views of children's impairments and/or the kind of problems that require treatment may also explain some of the lower utilization of mental health services among Latino children. There is some evidence that providers from different cultures differ in their impairment ratings of children. However, there is no research that examines whether non-Latino white providers as compared to Latino providers are more likely to rate the same children as impaired, nor is there any research that assesses the extent to which parents and providers from different cultures differ in their ratings of children's impairment. This pilot aims to investigate parental and provider beliefs about what is impaired behavior, the severity of the behavior, and the need for treatment in a sample of Mexican Americans, island Puerto Rican and non- Latino providers and parents. We will examine the ratings of providers and parents from the three ethnic groups using case vignettes of children with different levels of impairment and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Vignettes will be developed utilizing information obtained through secondary analyses of two clinical data sets. We will test the hypothesis that Puerto Rican and Mexican American parents and providers rate the children described in the vignettes as less impaired as compared to non-Latino white parents and providers. We further hypothesize that greater acculturation in Mexican American parents will be associated with less variation between Mexican American and non- Latino white parents in their impairment ratings of the vignettes. We also expect greater congruence in the impairment ratings and perceptions of need for services among parents and providers within the same ethnic group.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 87 publications
