The development and validation of culturally competent mental health services requires that culturally equivalent instrumentation be used in evaluations of such services. Unfortunately, cross-ethnic equivalence has rarely been examined for research instruments commonly used with Black and White children. In a sample of 117 juvenile offenders with diagnosed substance abuse or dependence disorders and considerable psychiatric comorbidities, the present study examined the cross-ethnic equivalence of several measures commonly used by services researchers to tap contextual correlates (i.e., parental symptomatology, family relations, peer relations) of serious emotional disturbance in children. Results indicated that associations between these measures and criterion measures of youth' behavior problems and social competence did not vary as a function of ethnicity. Thus, the findings support the cultural equivalence of the measures used in this study; as such, they support the validity of findings from studies that have used these measures with Black and White youth and their families.
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