Sara Castro-Olivo

Acculturation and Sociocultural Factors in Children’s Mental Health Services: Applying Multicultural Consultation Frameworks

Nearly one in four children in the United States lives with at least one immigrant parent, and 21% of the U.S. population speak a language other than English at home (Zong & Batalova, 2015). By 2020, more than half of U.S. children will belong to ethnic minority groups (Colby & Ortman, 2015). The increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in our society is often perceived as a challenge for psychologists and other mental health providers who work with immigrant families with unique needs. One of the major challenges is the cultural mismatch between the clients and providers, since the providers also carry cultural and social attitudes that may influence their own actions and perceptions of immigrants. Indeed, the current sociopolitical climate in the United States has led to increased discourse and debate related to the topic of immigration. In addition, many families experience risk factors (e.g., poverty, prejudice, less educational attainment, limited English proficiency) that often act as barriers for them to access or benefit from existing mental health supports and services for children (e.g., Eiraldi, Mazzuca, Clarke, & Power, 2006). This interplay of sociocultural factors has been argued to contribute to the underutilization of children’s mental health services among immigrant populations (American Psychological Association [APA], 2013). Incidentally, much of what is known about the implementation and effectiveness of evidence-based interventions with immigrants has been extrapolated from research on other/nonimmigrant ethnic minorities (Miranda et al., 2005), and a limited number of studies have discussed consultation services with immigrant or refugee families. Thus, the purpose of this special issue is to bring attention to empirical research and contemporary models of consultation when working with these populations. Research has highlighted the disparate mental health needs and educational performance among immigrant youth compared to other youth (Suarez-Orozco, Gaytan, Bang, Pakes, & Rhodes, 2010). Although many first-generation immigrants encounter a wide range of acculturative stressors, they often do better than their counterparts who remain in the country of origin and even second-

Cognitive Abilities in Bilinguals in L1 and L2

The proportion of individuals who speak more than one language in the United States has significantly increased. Although there are apparent cultural benefits for children who are bilingual, providing instruction and proper evaluation of bilinguals’ cognitive abilities comes with significant challenges. These challenges are exacerbated by the limited research in this area and the known impact speaking two languages has on individuals’ cognitive abilities. In this chapter, the authors highlight the challenges of conducting cognitive assessments with bilinguals. The authors also propose a culturally and linguistically responsive framework for minimizing bias in the assessment of cognitive abilities of bilinguals. The proposed framework is composed of four steps that encourages practitioners to: (1) assess their client’s behavioral and linguistic acculturation; (2) assess their clients’ verbal language abilities in both languages; (3) determine potential issues with comparing their clients’ cognitive abilities with the normative samples of available tests; and (4) select most appropriate test given the client’s sociocultural/behavioral background, language abilities, and appropriateness of available tests. Implications for clinical practice are also discussed.

Acculturation and Help-Seeking Behavior in Consultation: A Sociocultural Framework for Mental Health Service

ABSTRACT Many immigrant and ethnic minority families demonstrate reluctance to pursue or utilize mental health services in community-based and clinical settings, which often leads to poorer quality of care for children and greater likelihood of early termination. Cultural variations in help-seeking behavior and acculturation are likely to influence consultation participation and process for mental health services. Thus, examining sociocultural context of the consultants, consultees, and clients is critical to the success of multicultural consultation and outcomes. The purpose of the article is to (a) address processes and barriers when engaging in multicultural consultation in community-based and clinical settings, (b) outline the sociocultural context in relation to parent help-seeking behavior, and (c) discuss the effect of acculturation and related sociocultural factors in the participation and process of consultation.