ABSTRACT
The demographic composition of the United States has undergone dramatic changes during the past several decades. In fact, it is estimated that before the end of the millennium, Euro-Americans will no longer be the dominant culture within this country (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1995). The demographic shift has been attributed to several factors, including increased migration of African, Asian, and Latin Americans to the United States (Portes & Rumbaut, 1990), fewer babies born during the past decade compared with previous decades, more ethnic-minority children born than Euro-American children, and different birth mortality rates among the various cultural groups (National Center for Health Statistics, 1994). The demographic data also suggest that non-Euro-Americans are more economically and socially diverse, less concentrated in specific geographic areas, and representative of a continuum of worldviews (Wallen, 1992). Thus, suburban as well as rural communities are increasingly finding themselves with ethnic-minority residents from a variety of diverse backgrounds. The physical and economic boundaries that once separated communities are becoming more diffuse as the various ethnic populations grow and migrate across the country. When these sociocultural changes are examined from a clinician’s perspective, it appears that the current conceptual models are ill equipped to address the diverse cultural needs and demands of different ethnic groups. Compared to Euro-Americans, most ethnic-minorities’ worldviews tend to be incongruent, historical experiences tend to be different, and enculturation process tends to be more difficult. African Americans have a unique place within the ethnicminority subgroup. Within this country, their history has been more violent, their experiences have been more debilitating, and their tribulations have been more insidious and ongoing. As service providers working with African Americans, these historical and current experiences need to serve as a background for understanding their adaptive styles and coping strategies. More important, these experiences need to serve as a cultural context in developing a conceptual model for research, clinical intervention, and diagnostic differentiation.
