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The Cross-Ethnic Equivalence of Measures Commonly used in Mental Health Services Research with Children

PHILLIPPE B. CUNNINGHAM, PhD, is an instructor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina and the assistant director of training of multisystemic therapy at the Family Services Research Center. Address: Phillippe B. Cunningham, Family Services Research Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, 171 Ashley Ave., Charleston, SC 29425; e-mail: cunninpb@MUSC.Edu

SCOTT W. HENGGELER

SCOTT w. HENGGELER, PhD, is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of the Family Services Research Center at the Medical University of South Carolina. Much of Dr. Henggeler's research concerns serious antisocial behavior in adolescence and the development of effective treatments for such behavior.

SUSAN G. PICKREL

SUSAN G. PICKREL, MPH, MD, is an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. Her research concerns community-based treatment approaches for adolescents with serious emotional disturbances (juvenile offenders, substance-dependent) and infants and toddlers with disabilities.

The development and validation of culturally competent mental health services requires that culturally equivalent instrumentation be used in evaluations of such services. Unfortunately, cross-ethnic equivalence has rarely been examined for research instruments commonly used with Black and White children. In a sample of 117 juvenile offenders with diagnosed substance abuse or dependence disorders and considerable psychiatric comorbidities, the present study examined the cross-ethnic equivalence of several measures commonly used by services researchers to tap contextual correlates (i.e., parental symptomatology, family relations, peer relations) of serious emotional disturbance in children. Results indicated that associations between these measures and criterion measures of youth' behavior problems and social competence did not vary as a function of ethnicity. Thus, the findings support the cultural equivalence of the measures used in this study; as such, they support the validity of findings from studies that have used these measures with Black and White youth and their families.

Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, Vol. 4, No. 4, 231-239 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/106342669600400404


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