ABSTRACT

Historically psychological research has combined Asian Americans (AA) and Pacific Islanders (PI) into one ethnocultural group (AA/PI), thus obscuring important group differences. We evaluated group differences in terms of psychotherapy utilization, presenting concerns, reported distress levels, and psychotherapy outcomes using archival data collected at a large university counseling center. Results indicated that 443 AA clients were more likely than 415 PI clients to remain in therapy during the first eight sessions and 100 days of treatment. Although AA and PI clients reported equivalent levels of distress at intake, PI clients reported more concerns related to their family of origin – and we found some evidence of differential item functioning on the Outcome Questionnaire-45. Both groups experienced similar positive outcomes from therapy. We discourage the practice of combining AA and PI individuals and recommend that psychology research disaggregate data from distinct ethnic groups whenever feasible.

摘要

历史上的心理学研究将亚裔美国人（AA）和太平洋岛民（PI）合并为一个民族文化群体（AA / PI），从而掩盖了重要的群体差异。我们使用在大型大学咨询中心收集的档案数据，评估了在心理治疗利用，存在的担忧，所报告的困扰水平和心理治疗结果方面的群体差异。结果表明，在治疗的前8个疗程和100天中，有443名AA客户比415名PI客户更有可能继续接受治疗。尽管AA和PI客户报告了摄入时的困扰程度相同，但PI客户报告了更多与他们的原籍家庭有关的担忧-我们在“结果问卷-45”中发现了一些差异项目功能的证据。两组的治疗效果相似。