Biracial youth and families in therapy: Issues and interventions

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Jul 2000 by Milan, Stephanie, Keiley, Margaret K

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 socialconstructionist framework and offer several strategies based on narrative family therapy for working with biracial youngsters and their families.

Cultural pluralism is perhaps one of the greatest accomplishments of the modern era. In the past 2 decades, the field of psychology has responded to our changing demography with an increase in research and clinical literature focusing on various minority groups. Although the need for strengthened effort in this area is clear, therapists and researchers today are much better equipped to appreciate the challenges, strengths, and sociohistorical context associated with children and families from diverse backgrounds. Yet despite these gains, certain minority groups still remain relatively neglected within the literature. One such group is biracial youth and their families. Although the number of biracial individuals in the United States has grown steadily over the last 50 years, very little has been documented about the potentially unique aspects of individual development and family context within this population.

From professional and personal experience, we became interested in the unique developmental and clinical issues facing biracial children and their families. The existing literature, however, had very little to offer in understanding normative and problematic development within this population. Although a number of excellent literary works are available (e.g., Root, 1996), very little empirical research has been conducted specifically focusing on biracial youth. Thus, a first step in understanding adjustment in this population is to discern if biracial children are at particular risk for mental health problems. In order to address this question, we used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health; Udry, 1998). The survey was mandated by Congress to provide data measuring the impact of the social environment on adolescents' physical and mental health. Adolescents and their parents were asked both numerous questions assessing multiple domains of adjustment and detailed questions on racial/ethnic background. Because of the large sample size and diversity of areas assessed, Add Health is a unique source of data for generating a richer picture of biracial/ethnic youth.

The existing gap in the literature on biracial/biethnic youth is not limited to empirical research, however. There are also relatively few resources aimed at aiding practitioners in conceptualizing and addressing adjustment difficulties in clients that may be associated with biracial/biethnic status. Thus, the goal of this article is threefold. The first objective is to provide descriptive information from a nationally representative sample on the adjustment of biracial adolescents relative to white and monoracial minority youth. Next, we explore why biracial children may be particularly vulnerable from a social-constructionist perspective. Finally, we offer some guidelines for narrative-based family therapy specific to this population.

METHODS

Participants

Data are drawn from the core sample of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health; Udry, 1998). Add Health is a nationally representative study of students in the seventh through twelfth grades that is designed to measure the impact of social environment on adolescent health. The Add Health public-use data set includes interviews of 6,504 adolescents and 4,600 parents. On the Add Health survey, adolescents were asked multiple questions to assess their racial/ethnic background. Youngsters who self-identified as belonging to two different racial/ethnic groups were consolidated into a biracial/biethnic group (n = 272). All children who identified as White and non-Hispanic constitute the "Whites" group for the present study (n = 3,521). All children who identified as belonging to only one minority group (e.g., African American, Native American) constitute the "monoracial minority" group (n = 1,941). There is clearly considerable diversity within any of these groups; however, our overarching goal was to contrast children who identify with two different racial/ethnic groups to Whites and minorities identifying with only one group. Although this classification suited the present purposes, it is not to suggest that minority children-nor white children for that matter-an be considered a homogenous group in psychological research or practice.