Children and adolescents in community health centers: Does the ethnicity or the language of the therapist matter?

Abstract

In order to test the influence of therapist's ethnicity and language on the course of treatment for children and adolescents, this study investigated the effect of language and ethnic therapist–client match on the mental health treatment of thousands of Asian-American, Mexican-American, African-American, and Caucasian-American children and adolescents in the Los Angeles County Mental Health System. Conclusive support for the cultural responsiveness hypothesis for children was not found, but some validity for the hypothesis among adolescents was found. Ethnic match was a significant predictor of Mexican and Asian adolescent dropout after one session and total number of sessions, as well as African adolescent dropout after one session. When language match was added to the model for Mexican adolescents, language match was a significant predictor of dropout after one session and total number of sessions, whereas ethnic match was no longer a significant predictor. However, when language match was added to the model for Asian adolescents, language match was not a significant predictor of dropout after one session or total number of sessions, whereas ethnic match remained a significant predictor for both variables. Implications of these findings are discussed.