Biracial Youth and Families in Therapy: Issues and Interventions

Abstract

Empirical research and clinical resources focusing specifically on minority youth and families have increased tremendously in the last 2 decades. Despite this trend, certain groups continue to be relatively neglected. In particular, very few resources exist for understanding the unique challenges that often face biracial youth and their families. In this article, we use a nationally representative database to compare functioning in biracial youth to white adolescents and other minority adolescents. Results suggest that biracial/biethnic youth are a particularly vulnerable group in terms of self-reported delinquency, school problems, internalizing symptoms, and self-regard. As a group, they are also more likely to receive some form of psychological intervention. Given these findings and the shortcoming of clinical resources for work with this population, we provide an in-depth discussion of why biracial youth may be particularly vulnerable from a social-constructionist framework and offer several strategies based on narrative family therapy for working with biracial youngsters and their families.

Examining Multiracial Youth in Context: Ethnic Identity Development and Mental Health Outcomes

“…Additionally, using mental health as a latent variable for anxiety and depression, multiracial adolescents were found to have more mental health issues than monoracial Caucasians and African Americans. This is consistent with other investigations that have found higher levels of depression in multiracial adolescents than in adolescents from other ethnic groups (Cooney & Radina, 2000;Milan & Keiley, 2000).…”

“…Researchers speculate, and some findings support, that the complex nature of identity development for multiracial youth will contribute to weaker identity development and thus more issues with psychological adjustment (Brown, 1990;Coleman & Carter, 2007;Lusk, Taylor, Nanney, & Austin, 2010;Milan & Keiley, 2000;Park, 1928;Stonequist, 1961;Teicher, 1968;Udry, Li, & Hendrickson-Smith, 2003;Williams & Thornton, 1998). Others oppose the notion that multiple identities may lead to poor psychological outcomes, stating that one cannot assume that having two or more identities would lead to difficulties in identity development (Kato, 2000).…”

Psychological Adjustment, Behavior, and Health Problems in Multiracial Young Adults

“…Effect sizes (partial eta squared), however, were so small, varying between .001 and .003, that these statistical findings did not represent meaningful differences. Therefore, the current study found evidence of fewer difficulties of multiracial young adults relative to their monoracial peers, when compared to previous researchers who studied the same sample as adolescents and found consistent patterns of negative well-being (Milan & Keiley, 2000;Udry et al, 2003). In part this may be because previous researchers did not present effect sizes.…”

“…Udry, Li and Hendrickson-Smith (2003) studied 3,539 multiracial adolescents ages 12 to 18 and found they had increased psychological adjustment, health and behavior risks when compared to monoracial adolescents. The researchers used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health; Bearman, Jones, & Udry, 1997), a nationally representative school-based probability sample of 90,118 children in grades 7 through 12 conducted initially in 1994. Milan and Keiley (2000 found similar results, also using the same Add Health data.…”

“…Milan and Keiley (2000) also found multiracial adolescents had elevated risks for depression, somatization, conduct problems, school behavior, and self worth in comparison to their monoracial peers. Cooney and Radina (2000), also using the Add Health data, studied intact families with biological parents and found these multiracial adolescents were better adjusted than the findings of Udry et al (2003) and Milan and Keiley (2000); however, there was still evidence of more school related problems (e.g., grade retention, suspension) among multiracial boys and greater use of counseling services among multiracial girls than monoracial adolescents.…”