Influence of Therapist Ethnicity and Language On Therapy Outcomes of Southeast Asian Clients

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of Southeast Asian client- therapist ethnicity and language match on three therapy outcomes: number of ses sions with primary therapist, dropout from therapy and admission-discharge difference in Global Assessment Scale (GAS) scores. The sample consisted of 543 Southeast Asian client episodes in Los Angeles County mental health facilities between January 1983 and August 1988. Various types of multiple regression analyses were used to investigate the relationship of language and ethnicity match to the three outcome variables and to eight sociodemographic variables. Either therapist-client language or ethnicity match significantly increased the number of client sessions with the primary therapist. Dropout from therapy was significantly affected by a language match in the Cambodian sample only but the effect was to increase dropout. Neither ethnicity nor language match was significantly related to GAS score gain. Several possible explanations for these findings and their clinical significance were explored.