Assessing psychosocial stressors among Hispanic outpatients: Does clinician ethnicity matter?

Objective: Psychosocial and environmental stressors are a well-documented factor in the etiology, progression, and maintenance of psychiatric disorders. Clear guidelines on identifying them are lacking. When the patient and provider are of different cultures, the clinician may not properly understand and identify stressors. This study explored clinician ethnicity and identification of stressors. Methods: A total of 88 adult Hispanic outpatients in a community clinic were separately evaluated by pairs of clinicians (Hispanic and non-Hispanic) drawn from a pool of 47, as part of a larger study. Axis IV data are reported here. Results: Clinicians identified few psychosocial stressors. Non-Hispanic clinicians identified significantly more problems related to the primary support group and educational problems than Hispanic clinicians. Conclusions: Clinician ethnicity played a role in identification of psychosocial and environmental problems. Because stressors often affect the presenting problem and course of treatment, failure to properly identify and address them in treatment may influence service outcomes.