Ethnic match and client ethnicity effects on global assessment and visitation

Abstract

The effects of client-therapist ethnic match and client ethnicity on therapist-evaluated Global Assessment of Function (GAF) and visitation were investigated. The sample consisted of several thousand outpatient clients of a Southern California community mental health center. Findings indicated that unadjusted GAF-intake and GAF-termination scores were higher for ethnically matched Latino and Asian Americans but not for African and White Americans. Unadjusted GAF-difference scores for ethnically matched Latino and White Americans were higher than for African American clients. Unadjusted visitation or total visits was lower for ethnically matched Asian and Latino American clients, while African and White American clients had relatively high visitation levels regardless of the ethnic match status. After adjusting for 12 other variables, ethnically matched Asian American therapists consistently evaluated clients higher than did ethnically matched African American therapists. Adjusted visitation revealed fewer total visits for ethnically matched Latino and African American clients, while White Americans garnered higher visit levels when ethnically matched, and Asian Americans evidenced relatively high levels of visitation regardless of ethnic match status. Separate diagnostic category analyses revealed higher GAF-termination scores for ethnically matched African, Asian, and Latino American (schizophrenic) clients and ethnically matched Latino and Asian(mood disorder) clients. Implications for future research are discussed. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.