Mental Health of Children and Adolescents of Minority Groups

About this Research Topic

Background

Minority status, whether ethnic, racial, or sexual minority, has multiple influences on adolescent mental health. Minority status may influence beliefs about mental health, the manifestations of symptoms, coping behaviors, help-seeking patterns, and service utilization. Adolescents from minorities are also more likely to be discriminated against, bullied, and insulted which can act as risk factors for psychological problems. Available services may not cater to the unique characteristics of minority groups.

Literature shows that adolescents from minorities are more likely to engage in self-harm, have worse mental health outcomes, and greater likelihood of having conflicts with the law. Adolescents from minorities are also less likely to present to mental health services and are more likely to drop out of services.

Prevalence of child mental health problems in minority ethnic groups, service utilization among these groups, and identifying barriers to services in these specific groups are needed to influence policy and practice so that evidence-based and appropriate services can be designed and offered to these populations.

Our goal is to gather the latest evidence on the prevalence of mental health problems and service utilization in adolescents from minority groups in order to create evidence-based mental health interventions for this population.

We welcome original articles, review articles, mini-reviews, perspectives, and community case studies in the following areas.

• The current prevalence of mental health problems among adolescents from minorities (i.e., either ethnic or sexual minorities) and how the prevalence has changed over the years

• The factors contributing to mental health problems among minority adolescents

• The effects of the pandemic on the mental health of adolescents from minorities

• Patterns of service utilization of adolescents from minorities and how it has changed over the years

• Barriers to utilization of mental health services in adolescents from minorities

• Effectiveness of specific public health programs to address the mental health needs of adolescents from minorities

• Specific mental health interventions targeted at adolescents from minorities

Keywords: Minority, mental health, child, adolescent, mental health services, self-harm

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