Racial/ethnic minority research in school psychology

Abstract

The present investigation analyzed the content of all school psychology research published between 1975 and 1990 in terms of racial/ethnic minority topics. All articles from the three major school psychology journals, Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, and School Psychology Review, were reviewed to see whether they contained minority issues information. The qualifying articles were systematically analyzed with regard to specific minority group studied, geographic area and population sampled, subject area addressed, and total number of articles published. Two hundred twenty-five studies were included in the analysis. An examination of the data suggests that (a) African American children and youth were sampled most frequently (64%), followed by Mexican-American youngsters (20%); (b) the majority of samples were drawn from southwestern populations; (c) most empirical studies (77%) dealt with psychoeducational assessment issues. Implications for training and practice in school psychology are discussed.