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Racial/Ethnic Disparities In Mental Health Diagnosis Of Maltreated Youth, Shadie Burke

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Racial/ethnic marginalized youth are more likely to receive a misdiagnosis of a mental health disorder than their White peers. Misdiagnosis contributes to existing disparities for racial/ethnic marginalized groups by leading to longer durations of untreated and worsening mental health symptoms. For maltreated youth, receiving a misdiagnosis can lead to a failure to connect with appropriate mental health services, medication regimens, therapeutic foster homes, and academic and developmental resources. To date, very few empirical studies have identified disparities in mental health diagnosis among racial/ethnic marginalized maltreated youth. The present study examined two key research questions: (1) what racial/ethnic disparities in diagnoses …