Source
Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, Children's Hospital, San Diego, California, USA. myeh@casrc.org
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To examine racial/ethnic patterns of parental beliefs about etiological explanations for youth problems.
METHOD:
The parents of 1338 youths with identified mental health problems were asked about their beliefs about the causes for their children's problems from a questionnaire with 11 etiological categories.
RESULTS:
Parents of African American, Asian/Pacific Islander American, and Latino youths were generally less likely than parents of non-Hispanic whites to endorse etiologies consistent with biopsychosocial beliefs about mental illness. Some racial/ethnic differences were evident for sociological causes, but none existed for spiritual or nature disharmony etiologies. Analyses controlling for factors including child symptomatology produced fewer significant racial/ethnic differences but a similar pattern of results.
CONCLUSIONS:
Racial/ethnic differences in parental beliefs about the causes of child problems exist in an at-risk sample, and implications for the help-seeking, utilization, and effectiveness of biopsychosocially oriented mental health services for diverse populations are discussed.