CHAPTER 15 Cultural Diversity in the Development of Child Psychopathology FELICISIMA C. SERAFICA and LUIS A. VARGAS A DEVELOPMENTAL-CONTEXTUAL PERSPECTIVE ON PSYCHOPATHOLOGY 588 CULTURE 589 Assumptions about Culture 589 Culture as an Explanatory Variable 590 The Significance of Culture 591 CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHOPATHOLOGY 593 CULTURAL VARIATION IN EXPRESSIONS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY 593 Expressions of Symptomatology 593 Linguistic Expressions 594 Behavioral Expressions 594 CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN PREVALENCE RATES 595 Cross-Cultural Differences in Prevalence Rates 595 Ethnic Differences in Prevalence Rates 599 Externalizing Problems and Disorders 599 Internalizing Symptoms and Disorders 602 To more deeply understand the role of culture in the emer- gence, persistence, and desistance of psychopathology among children and youth, this chapter examines cultural diversity in child and adolescent psychopathology and its development. Based on a selective review of recent compar- ative studies, we present a synthesis of cross-cultural and ethnic differences that stood out amid the similarities also found. We examine culture's role in child psychopathology and its development through an examination of cultural di- versity. Our specific aims are (1) to review and synthesize the findings of recent comparative studies that examined cultural variations in the expression of symptomatology, prevalence, development, and correlates of psychopathol- ogy in children and adolescents; (2) to report related find- ings from ethnic and cultural studies that sampled only one population; (3) to identify conceptual and methodological issues identified in the studies reviewed; and (4) to suggest future directions for research. CULTURAL CORRELATES OF CHILD PSYCHOPATHOLOGY 61 1 Cultural Values 61 1 Ethnic Socialization 614 Acculturation 615 Ethnic Identification 616 Mental Health-Related Beliefs 616 Cultural Responses to Deviance and Distress 617 Help Seeking and Preferred Modes of Intervention 61 8 Ethnicity, Minority Status, and Perceived Discrimination 618 CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES 618 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS 619 REFERENCES 621 A DEVELOPMENTAL-CONTEXTUAL PERSPECTIVE ON PSYCHOPATHOLOGY The developmental approach to psychopathology, more commonly known as developmental psychopathology, as- serts that because there is unity in development, the study of psychopathology or development gone awry in infants, children, and adolescents has to be based on knowledge of normal development and should involve the application of developmental principles. A corollary to this assertion is that research on development gone awry can enhance our understanding of normal development. Therefore, the field of developmental psychopathology focuses on the in- terplay between normal and abnormal development and on the relationship between deviant and typical forms of a behavior. Like other attempts to describe and explain psychopathology, the developmental approach seeks to un- derstand the etiology, course, and prognosis of a specificCulture 589 disorder. However, its interests extend beyond the identi- fication of predisposing, precipitating, and maintaining factors or risk and protective variables. This approach ,lSo seeks to ascertain the internal and external factors that promote competency and resiliency in individuals. MOS~ important, the developmental approach is concerned with describing the developmental sequence of a particu- lar disorder and understanding the processes as well as mechanisms involved. Consistent with a transactional model of the developmental process, the emergence of is conceptualized as occurring through a dynamic transaction with intra- and extraorganismic forces (Cicchetti & Cohen, 1995). Acknowledging these forces implies that developmental psychopathology views deviant behavior in context. Thus, it is congruent with a developmental-contextual perspective. Contexts vary; they may be intraorganismic or extraorganismic. An intra- organismic context is organic, involving biologically based characteristics (e.g., genes, brain, central nervous system) and an intrapersonal context involving personal character- istics (e.g., cognitions, emotions, personality). An extra- organismic context subsumes an interpersonal context involving social interactions and relationships (e.g., fam- ily, peers) and a superordinate context comprising vari- ables that deal with aggregates of individuals taken as a unit (e.g., ethnic group, social class, culture; Wenar & Kerig, 2000). These different contexts may be considered separately for purposes of analysis, but they are really in- terrelated (Lerner, 1995). The focus of this chapter is on one type of superordinate context, namely, culture. A cul- tural perspective to developmental psychopathology ne- cessitates that normal and abnormal development as well as typical and deviant forms of behavior be considered from the standpoint of both dominant mainstream culture and the minority cultures. A developmental-contextual approach is compatible with this perspective. CULTURE Culture refers to the designs for living in a specific habitat that have evolved among a particular group of people and are transmitted within and between generations (M. Cole &Cole, 2004). It refers to the entire way of life of a society including its values, beliefs, attitudes, norms, practices, language, religion, and institutions. These designs for liv- ing are represented through artifacts, actions, or symbols. North's (1990, p. 37) definition of culture as "a language- based conceptual framework for encoding and interpreting information that the senses are presenting to the brain" em- phasizes its symbolic nature. There is shared meaning among those who have the same culture. Their view of the world and its people and how they think and make judg- ments in general or specific areas of life are filtered through a culturally based information system (Goode- nough, 1989). The term "culture" is usually employed to designate the designs for living among individuals who, frequently but not always, share a common biological ancestry and, initially occupied a particular habitat, namely, an ethnic group. It is in this sense that the term is used in this chap- ter, though