title: Problem-specific racial/ethnic disparities in pathways from maltreatment exposure to specialty mental health service use for youth in child welfare.
abstract: The authors examined racial/ethnic differences in pathways from maltreatment exposure to specialty mental health service use for youth in contact with the Child Welfare system. Participants included 1,600 non-Hispanic White, African American, and Latino youth (age 4-14) who were the subjects of investigations for alleged maltreatment and participated in the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. Maltreatment exposure, internalizing, and externalizing problems were assessed at baseline and subsequent specialty mental health service use was assessed 1 year later. Maltreatment exposure predicted both internalizing and externalizing problems across all racial/ethnic groups, but non-Hispanic White youth were the only group for whom maltreatment exposure was linked with subsequent service use via both internalizing and externalizing problem severity. Only externalizing problems predicted subsequent service use for African American youth and this association was significantly stronger relative to non-Hispanic White youth. Neither problem type predicted service use for Latinos. Future research is needed to understand how individual-, family-, and system-level factors contribute to racial/ethnic differences in pathways linking maltreatment exposure to services via internalizing/externalizing problems.
authors: University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. jonmartinez21@ucla.edu
authors: Jonathan I
authors: JI
authors: Martinez
authors: Omar G
authors: OG
authors: Gudiño
authors: Anna S
authors: AS
authors: Lau
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000628:therapy*; D002660:Child Guidance / Q000379:methods*; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000379:methods*; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D057545:Social Stigma; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: child maltreatment; children in child welfare; cultural/ethnic issues; ethnic minority populations; mental health services
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