Disparities: Mental Health Care Use, Risk of Developmental DisordersRacial/Ethnic Disparities in the Mental Health Care Utilization of Fifth Grade Children
Section snippets
Methods
Healthy Passages, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a longitudinal study of a cohort of 5147 fifth graders and their parents that explores health behaviors, outcomes, and related risk and protective factors by using a multilevel approach. Baseline data collected from 2004 to 2006 were used for this analysis. Institutional review boards at each study site and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved this study. “Healthy Passages” provides a comprehensive
Characteristics of All Children Using Mental Health Care
Nine percent of fifth graders had received care at some time in their lives for emotional, behavioral, or drug/alcohol problems (Table 1). Of these, 71% received care from mental health specialists (psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse, clinical social worker, other mental health professional/specialist), 20% used school services only (school counselor, school psychologist, or other school mental health worker), and 9% received care from a primary care provider only (pediatrician,
Discussion
Our findings suggest that there is a significant and robust disparity in mental health care utilization for black children, which cannot be fully explained by racial/ethnic differences in child mental health, family sociodemographics, or parental social factors. This disparity persists even when just considering those children with symptoms of a mental health condition. It also exists in similar magnitude across all 4 examined mental health conditions. We did not find a disparity in utilization
Acknowledgments
The “Healthy Passages” study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prevention Research Centers (Cooperative Agreements U48DP000046, U48DP000057, and U48DP000056; Dr Mark A. Schuster). The authors thank Dr Greta Massetti for her review of this manuscript.
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The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.