Multicultural Understanding of Child and Adolescent Psychopathology: Implications for Mental Health Assessment

Around the world, many immigrant and minority children are immersed in mental health, social welfare, and educational systems that are ill equipped to evaluate and help them. This important volume synthesizes an array of international findings to broaden the knowledge base on cultural variations in children's emotional and behavioral problems. Drawing on both empirically based and diagnostically based approaches, the authors examine similarities and differences in the prevalence, patterns, and correlates of particular disorders. They distinguish between culture-specific and more general problems in adaptation, identify instruments and procedures that are particularly suited to multicultural assessment, and discuss the implications for developing more effective services.