Minority Mental Health: Disparities, Challenges, and Solutions
However, mental health was frequently measured as per the psychological meta-narrative through standardised validated psychological measures. The psycho-social meta-narrative considers the interplay of individual psychology and social contextual factors in mental health without conceptualising the two as discrete entities. In this meta-narrative there was very little theorisation of youth and the under-pinning presumption was adolescent development. The theoretical basis of these studies most often relied on Meyer’s (2003) Minority Stress Framework in which LGBTQ+ identity is fixed and a discrete category.
Potential Harm in the Psychological Treatment of Sexual and Gender Minority Youth
- By investing in mental health care for marginalized youth, society can help break these cycles and create more equitable opportunities for all young people.
- Adolescent samples (11–20 years of age) were targeted in 12 studies, 17 studies included both children and adolescents (3–22 years of age), and 4 studies only reported median age (ranging from 12.6 to 15.3 years of age).
- Western Youth Services is committed to advancing mental health equity through our tailored programs and initiatives.
- Some behaviors may signal more serious mental health complications, such as suicidal thoughts.
- Individuals in racial-ethnic minority groups are less likely to be included in important genomic studies, leading to a gap in representation in biological research.
Mental healthcare providers may also lack awareness about cultural factors that tend to shape the experiences and needs of individuals from minoritized ethnic groups, undermining the patients’ trust in the provider. Discrimination by healthcare providers in the form of microaggressions or stereotyping can reduce adherence to treatment and lead to the discontinuation of treatment. Diagnosed mental disorders require sustained treatment, and the healthcare provider-patient relationship plays a critical role in determining treatment success. Residential segregation has also affected Latino communities, and individuals residing predominantly in these communities tend to have limited access to specialty mental health professionals.
Studies Examining Diagnoses in Treatment Settings
This study is the first in the UK to demonstrate that there are developmental differences in the rate of decrease, according to ethnicity. In line with previous longitudinal research (Pingault SAFE Project Latinx mental health resources et al., 2015; Miner & Clarke-Stewart, 2008), this study also found that children, on average, followed a decreasing trajectory of externalizing problems from ages 3 to 14, with symptoms increasing slightly as they entered adolescence. At age 3, Pakistani and Black Caribbean children showed higher levels of externalizing problems than white children.
For instance, minority parents are more likely to identify their child’s emotional/behavioral problems as non-mental health related than non-Hispanic White parents, not identify them as problems at all (USDHHS, 2001), or believe they will improve with time (Weisz, Suwanlert, Chaiyasit, Weiss, Walter et al., 1988). Some researchers have suggested that culture and ethnicity may play a role in whether individuals perceive certain problems to be mental health related or pathological in the first place (Fabrega et al., 1993; Sue, 1994). This can provide a more complete picture of the youth’s symptomatology and functioning across various contexts and situations, such as home and school.
Black adolescents, specifically, have lower rates of utilization of mental health services (Merikangas et al., 2011) that is not accounted for by health insurance access (Ayalon & Alvidrez, 2009). As providers of mental health care, we need to advocate for transforming health system and policy responses, integrating mental health into primary care, decentralizing mental health services, increasing financial support, and strengthening public health perspectives in mental health care. Mental health services that are culturally sensitive and consider the needs of individuals from racial-ethnic minority groups may increase service utilization in both the medical and the community settings (7). The findings from this study suggest that the underrepresentation of Black Caribbean children with emotional and behavioral disorders within voluntary UK mental health services (Edbrooke-Childs et al., 2016) could reflect unmet need, rather than lower prevalence.
Sometimes the physical changes of puberty can prompt strong feelings of distress for gender-diverse youth. Furthermore, some gender-diverse youth experience mental distress if their physical appearance does not match their gender identity. They are often still judged or excluded from activities, bullied at school, and face violence at home or in their communities. 51,72,73 Positive perceptions of one’s race/ethnicity have been linked to improved self-esteem, better academic outcomes, and decreased internalizing and externalizing problems.51,72 For example, in their cross-sectional investigation, Zhen-Duan and colleagues73 found that Puerto Rican girls who had a greater acceptance of their ethnic identity reported higher self-concept despite experiencing elevated levels of cultural stress. Most current risk and resilience research has focused ways stressors affect the hypothalamic– pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and how these are linked to mental health outcomes.
Furthermore, as treatment research becomes more focused on polygenic risk scores, not having this data on individuals from racial-ethnic minority groups means that more effective treatment regiments for these individuals will not be developed. Individuals in racial-ethnic minority groups are less likely to be included in important genomic studies, leading to a gap in representation in biological research. Additionally, studies show that underrepresentation and limited participation of individuals from racial-ethnic minority groups are present in research as well.