Culture and family therapy.

Children and families constitute an ever-increasing culturally diverse group in this country. Together with incentives in multicultural education and the evidence of the impact of different cultural values in the media, these groups have become more visible, more complex, and harder to study. Culture is defined as dynamic and expressive of shared values and behaviors.

Mental health issues of culturally diverse underserved children.

This article addresses the clinical issues relevant to mental health workers when evaluating children of diverse cultures who live in conditions of persistent poverty. We suggest a model that considers the social as well as the biologic risk factors affecting these children and that includes the importance of culture on symptom expression and health-seeking behavior. The discussion includes specific assessment approaches sensitive to the context in which these children develop and the psychiatric diagnostic entities and treatment approaches thought to be particularly relevant to these children.

Functional somatic symptoms: a cross-ethnic comparison.

Type, distribution, and comorbidity of functional somatic symptoms were examined in four community samples, three Hispanic and one non-Hispanic white. Important intergroup and intragroup differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic white groups were identified. Of the four groups, Puerto Rican respondents reported the highest level of somatic symptoms; this finding was apparently independent of sociodemographic factors.