Multiculturalism and Diversity in Integration Journals: A Content Analysis of JPT and JPC,1973–2020

Abstract

Multiculturalism has emerged as a central focus in psychology and theology, although the field of integration has been slower to embrace it. In this article, we explore the literature at the intersection of multiculturalism, psychology, and theology using a content analysis. Multicultural article titles and abstracts from the Journal of Psychology and Theology (JPT) and the Journal of Psychology and Christianity (JPC) were examined from their first issues (1973 and 1982, respectively) through 2020 (N = 2,333). Multicultural content was identified in 18.0% of the articles (n = 395) with a growing trend across time (11.4% in the 1970s to 22.9% in the 2010s). Of the eight identity domains, gender/sex was the most represented (4.4% of all articles), followed by articles on age (children/adolescents or older adults, 4.2%), global/international (2.8%), non-evangelical religion/spirituality (2.8%), sexual orientation (2.7%), race/ethnicity (1.6%), physical and cognitive/neurological disability (1%), and social class (0.5%). The remaining articles (1%) included multicultural content more generally (e.g., training, multicultural competence, social justice). Results suggest that JPT and JPC have made advances in multiculturalism content, although it remains relatively lower than in mainstream psychology journals. Findings are discussed with a critical analysis and with implications for the future integration of psychology and theology.