Black psychiatric patients' reactions to the cultural mistrust inventory

This pilot study examined African-American psychiatric patients' reactions to the Cultural Mistrust Inventory, a measure of blacks' mistrust of white society. Twenty-two black psychiatric patients were screened for the Culturally-Sensitive Diagnostic Interview Research Project. All patients were debriefed after the screening interview including queries about their reactions to the experience, whether they would be willing to participate in the next interview, and their reasons for participating or not. Patients' responses were recorded verbatim and were categorized in terms of their valence (positive, neutral, or negative) and affectivity (yes or no) by independent raters. Agreement between raters in terms of the valence of patients' reactions was very good, but it was poor to fair in terms of affectivity ratings. The majority of these black patients' responses were positive and nonaffective. Administration of the Cultural Mistrust Inventory to black psychiatric patients does not cause negative emotional reactions.