The Effects of Therapist-Client Ethnic Match in the Assessment of Mental Health Functioning

Abstract

The present study empirically examined the relationship between therapist-client ethnic match and the therapists' evaluations of overall client functioning based on the Global Assessment Scale. The sample consisted of thousands of African American, Asian American, Mexican American, and White American outpatient clients in the Los Angeles County mental health system. Findings indicated that ethnically matched therapists judged clients to have higher mental health functioning than did mismatched therapists. After controlling for other variables (e.g., age, gender, marital status, and referral source), this effect persisted for African American and Asian American clients. For both groups, ethnic match significantly predicted ratings of higher client functioning when combining all diagnoses. Within diagnostic category, ethnic match significantly predicted ratings of higher client functioning for African American, Asian American, and Mexican American clients to varying degrees. Implications of these findings are discussed.