The meaning of culturally sensitive research in mental health

Abstract

To answer the question of what culturally sensitive mental health research is, the author focuses on the entire process of research. He argues that research is made culturally sensitive through a continuing, incessant, and open-ended series of substantive and methodological insertions and adaptations designed to mesh the process of inquiry with the cultural characteristics of the group being studied. Illustrations include pretesting and planning of research, collection of data and translation of instruments, instrumentation of measures, and analysis and interpretation of data. The insertions and adaptations ideally have a cumulative effect in rendering individual projects culturally sensitive and in building culturally informed research.