Suggestions for Culturally Adapting Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) and Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) for Asian American Families with Adolescents

This thesis examines two evidence based therapies (CPRT and PCIT) aimed to improve the quality of parent-child relationships and how they may be culturally adapted to better serve the needs of Asian American adolescent families. Cultural factors that affect help seeking behavior and treatment procedures in Asian American communities such as acculturation, language barriers, and mental health stigmas are discussed and recommended to be taken into account. Literature on treatment outcomes of standard CPRT and PCIT protocol is summarized along with treatment outcomes of previously culturally adapted programs. Suggestions are made on how future adaptations of these programs can expand upon the current literature on cultural adaptations in order to make treatment more inclusive of salient issues within the Asian American community. In addition to culturally adapting CPRT and PCIT, it is also important to adapt them for the adolescent age range as this is a time where many individuals begin to develop a deeper sense of ethnic and racial identity. The heterogeneity of the Asian American population and the lack of randomized clinical trials in testing culturally adapted programs against standard CPRT and PCIT are discussed as limitations within this thesis along with directions for future research