Individual Difference Variables in Adolescent Psychopathology: A Reflection on Cultural Norms, Intervention, and Attribution of Meaning: An Australian Case Study

Adolescents from non-dominant social and cultural backgrounds frequently experience additional compounding factors that impact mental health and social-emotional wellbeing, occasionally necessitating psychiatric intervention. Further, young people from refugee backgrounds face suicide risk factors in addition to those experienced by their peers. At present, culturally transferable, evidence-based interventions for adolescents residing in multicultural populations are not readily available, despite extensive research that demonstrates the positive effects of these interventions. This article aimed to (1) justify the importance of awareness training for mental health professionals working with multicultural adolescent populations, (2) discuss the implications for advancing preventative programs to minimise universal responses to assessment and intervention of adolescents from non-dominant cultures, and (3) examine existing interventions. Six brief case studies in the form of a vignette are presented to highlight some of the challenges that adolescents from different cultural backgrounds face in the Australian context.