Ethnicity and clinical psychology: A content analysis of the literature

Abstract

As the demographics of the U.S. population continues to change and become increasingly diverse, clinical psychologists will need to demonstrate their competence in providing culturally appropriate treatments to a wide variety of populations. This article summarizes a comprehensive content analysis of five of the leading scholarly journals in clinical psychology over a 17-year period (1980–1997). Results indicate that only 29.3% of the published articles in the clinical psychology literature included ethnic minority participants. Furthermore, only 5.4% of the articles actually focused specifically on ethnic minority populations. Thus, the clinical psychology literature does not contain adequate coverage of ethnically diverse populations in the U.S., despite their growing numbers. This content analysis provides the field with a baseline for future comparison to determine whether the field in general is responding to the needs of an increasingly diverse society, and to help gauge whether clinical psychologists have the scholarly resources available to assist them with becoming more culturally competent. Implications for the paucity of research and recommendations to ameliorate the problem are discussed.