Empirically supported treatments in pediatric psychology: where is the diversity?

To examine the extent to which studies used to support empirically supported treatments for asthma, cancer, diabetes, and obesity address issues of cultural diversity.

We chose original articles (71) of treatments used to support empirically supported treatments (ESTs) published as part of a special series on ESTs in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology. Trained coders reviewed each study to determine if the following were reported: race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) of the sample, moderating cultural variables, cultural assumptions or biases of the treatment, larger cultural issues, and measurement or procedure bias.

Results revealed that few studies addressed cultural variables in any way. Only 27% of the studies reported the race or ethnicity and 18% reported the SES of research participants. Additionally, 6% discussed potential moderating cultural variables. The remaining variables were addressed in 7% or less of the studies.

These data support the criticism that ESTs fail to address important issues of culture and call into question the external validity of ESTs to diverse populations. Future research should explicitly address cultural issues according to the nine recommendations described here.