Race/ethnicity, parent-identified emotional difficulties, and mental health visits among California children.
Variability in mental health services utilization by race/ethnicity was evaluated with a Behavioral Model approach. Subjects were 17,705 children 5 to 11 years of age in the 2005, 2007, and 2009 California Health Interview Surveys. Parents identified minor emotional difficulties in 18.7% of these children (ranging from 14.8% in Asians to 24.4% in African Americans) and definite or severe difficulties in 7.4% (5.5% in Asians to 9.7% in "other race"). Overall, 7.6% of children had at least one mental health visit in the prior year (2.3% in Asians to 11.2% in African Americans). Parent-identified need was the most salient predictor of mental health visits for all racial/ethnic groups. Beyond need, no consistent patterns could be determined across racial/ethnic groups with regard to the relationship between contextual, predisposing, and enabling measures and mental health service utilization. Different factors operated for each racial/ethnic group, suggesting the need for studies to examine mental health need, mental health service use, and determinants by racial/ethnic subgroup. These findings suggest that a "one-size-fits-all approach" with regard to policies and practices aimed at reducing mental health disparities will not be effective for all racial/ethnic groups.
Department of Health Policy and Management, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, Loma Linda, CA 92350, USA. jbanta@llu.edu
Jim E
JE
Banta
Sigrid
S
James
Mark G
MG
Haviland
Ronald M
RM
Andersen
D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002140:California; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010290:Parents; D044469:Racial Groups; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data