Parental beliefs about the causes of child problems: exploring racial/ethnic patterns.
OBJECTIVE
To examine racial/ethnic patterns of parental beliefs about etiological explanations for youth problems.


METHODS
The parents of 1338 youths with identified mental health problems were asked about their beliefs about the causes for their children's problems from a questionnaire with 11 etiological categories.


RESULTS
Parents of African American, Asian/Pacific Islander American, and Latino youths were generally less likely than parents of non-Hispanic whites to endorse etiologies consistent with biopsychosocial beliefs about mental illness. Some racial/ethnic differences were evident for sociological causes, but none existed for spiritual or nature disharmony etiologies. Analyses controlling for factors including child symptomatology produced fewer significant racial/ethnic differences but a similar pattern of results.


CONCLUSIONS
Racial/ethnic differences in parental beliefs about the causes of child problems exist in an at-risk sample, and implications for the help-seeking, utilization, and effectiveness of biopsychosocially oriented mental health services for diverse populations are discussed.
Yeh
May
M
Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, Children's Hospital, San Diego, California, USA. myeh@casrc.org
Hough
Richard L
RL
McCabe
Kristen
K
Lau
Anna
A
Garland
Ann
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D003469:Culture; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010290:Parents; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D012938:Social Perception; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires