Abstract
Archival data from Tri-City Community Mental Health agency was used evaluating 280 ethnically diverse children and adolescents treated for mental health problems between 1997 and 1999. Research aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of client-therapist ethnic-matching and client ethnicity on community psychotherapeutic services for children and adolescents using an integrated ecological and cultural responsiveness theoretical base. The purpose of this study was to bridge the gap between past research on culturally competent therapeutic services with adults and the lack of culturally competent outcome research for ethnically diverse children and adolescents. Statistical analyses included ANCOVAs and Pearson r correlations. The results indicate overall that high levels of clinical outcomes regardless of client-modal therapist ethnic match and client ethnicity were achieved when treating children with mental and behavioral problems. Age group did appear to play a role in the clinical outcome of relationship status. Late adolescents were shown to have better outcomes in their relationships with others than early adolescents and children. Client ethnicity and client-therapist ethnic match was shown to have little effect on clinical outcomes for children and adolescents. Factors such as ethnic identity, developmental level, and therapist's cultural competence level are variables which should be explored in future research in order to gain a better understanding of how ethnicity and culture affect psychotherapeutic services in community mental health for children and adolescents.