Acculturation and Sociocultural Factors in Children’s Mental Health Services: Applying Multicultural Consultation Frameworks
Guest Edited by
Anisa N. Goforth, University of Montana
Andy V. Pham, Florida International University Heejung Chun, New Mexico State University
Sara Castro-Olivo, Texas A&M International University
About the Special Issue
Nearly one in four children in the United States live with at least one immigrant parent, and 21% of the U.S. population speak a language other than English in the home (Zong & Batalova, 2015). These children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds often experience challenges associated with acculturation, a process broadly defined as the degree to which an individual maintains one’s heritage culture and/or has participated in the mainstream culture (Berry, 1997). Acculturation is also associated with other sociocultural factors, including acculturative stress, ethnic or cultural identity development, cultural mismatch between families and school, and perceived discrimination (Berry et al., 2006; Oppedal et al., 2005). Moreover, differences in acculturation between immigrant parents and children can also lead to family conflict along with risk of psychological maladjustment (Goforth et al., 2015). Given the need to ensure that mental health practices are culturally responsive, practitioners are urged to increase their knowledge about how these sociocultural factors influence the consultation process when working with immigrant or ethnic minority families.
Multicultural consultation is described as a framework or lens for understanding the influence of culture in consultation (Ingraham, 2000). Multicultural consultants must understand how each member of the consultation process (e.g., consultant, consultee, child) culturally identify themselves and the frame of reference from which they operate within their community or cultural group (Leong, 1996). The cultural saliency (i.e., cultural similarities or differences perceived by consultation members) may influence the consultation process and its effectiveness. Yet, there is limited research on how we can assess these perceptions within the context of consultation and how specific sociocultural factors (e.g., acculturative stress) influence intervention and treatment efforts.
More research on this topic can help improve our understanding of why ethnic minority and immigrant families, in general, are less likely to pursue and utilize mental health services (Eiraldi et al., 2006). Ethnic minority youth generally have poorer quality of care and greater likelihood of early termination, particularly in clinical settings (Eiraldi et al., 2006; Snowden & Yamada, 2005). School-based mental health services, however, serve to reduce such barriers to care, yet there still remain challenges for ethnic minority families to engage in help-seeking behavior (Guo et al., 2014) and home-school collaboration (Hill & Torres, 2010). Practitioners need to determine how to address various sociocultural factors that may underlie these racial and ethnic
disparities when providing consultation for mental health services. Although one can carefully consider these sociocultural factors as a way to establish cultural sensitivity and multicultural competence, limited research has investigated how to assess and apply these factors within a consultation framework.
The purpose of this special issue to provide an avenue for scholars to disseminate research studies that address acculturation and sociocultural factors in children’s mental health services across a variety of settings (e.g., school, community mental health centers) using a consultation framework. We are interested in submissions that are empirical (although theoretical or conceptual papers are acceptable) that explore risk and protective factors relevant to ethnic minority and immigrant families:
- Acculturation or acculturative stress (Berry et al., 2006)
- Generational status (Sirin et al., 2013)
- Ethnic identity (Neblett et al., 2013)
- Social support networks for immigrant youth and families (Zhou & Kim, 2006)
- Cultural saliency, mismatch, congruity, or discontinuity (Allen & Boykin, 1992; Leong,1996; Ogbu, 1982; Sirin et al., 2013).
- Consultation models for ethnic minority youth (Ingraham, 2000; Ingraham & Meyes, 2000)
Interested contributors are encouraged to first submit a 500-word ABSTRACT by October 30, 2015 to Dr. Anisa Goforth (anisa.goforth@umontana.edu). Authors of accepted abstracts will then be invited to submit a manuscript. All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed. The Guest Editors for this special issue are Drs. Anisa Goforth (University of Montana), Andy V. Pham (Florida International University), Heejung Chun (New Mexico State University) and Sara Castro-Olivo (Texas A&M International University).