The semistructured interview for consideration of ethnic culture in therapy scale: initial psychometric and outcome support.
A five-minute ethnic-culture interview makes clients feel heard and respected.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Donohue et al. (2006) built a short interview called the SSICECTS. It asks clients about their ethnic culture before therapy starts.
The team ran a controlled trial. One group got the cultural interview. The other got a neutral chat. Clients then rated how well the therapist knew and respected their background.
What they found
Clients who received the SSICECTS gave higher scores for therapist cultural knowledge and respect.
The scale also showed solid psychometrics. It did what it promised: measure cultural consideration in a quick, structured way.
How this fits with other research
Kwak et al. (2024) later built the VCAT, a questionnaire that updates the same idea for ABA practice. Where SSICECTS used open questions, VCAT gives BCBAs a ready checklist of value-based items.
Gatzunis et al. (2022) shifted the concept into supervision. Their CRSS tool lets supervisors audit their own cultural responsiveness, mirroring the SSICECTS self-reflection goal but for the oversight setting.
Pak et al. (2024) moved from assessment to intervention. They paired Spanish-speaking mothers with an adapted EMT program, showing that once you learn about culture you can embed it directly in treatment.
Together the papers form a timeline: SSICECTS first proved a brief cultural interview works; newer tools and trials show how to apply, update, and extend that idea across ABA tasks.
Why it matters
You can add the SSICECTS to your intake today. It takes five minutes and lifts client trust. If you want a BCBA-specific upgrade, pair it with the VCAT for goal setting or the CRSS for supervision. Either way, start every case by asking about culture first, not last.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
There has been recent pressure for practitioners to consider cultural variables when implementing evidence-based interventions. Therefore, the Semistructured Interview for Consideration of Ethnic Culture in Therapy Scale (SSICECTS) was empirically developed to address this issue. First, psychometric properties of a 6-item scale were evaluated in 279 individuals of various ethnicities. Results indicated two factors accounting for 71% of the variance (ethnic cultural importance and ethnic cultural problems). Internal consistency and convergent validity were satisfactory. Ethnic minority participants demonstrated significantly higher scores than did Caucasians, suggesting this scale may be particularly applicable in ethnic minority populations. In a second study, a controlled trial was conducted to examine clinical utility of the semistructured interview component in a subsample of 151 participants. Participant interviewees were queried about their basic demographic information and were subsequently instructed to evaluate the interviewers' performance. Interviewees were then randomly assigned to receive the SSICECTS or a parallel semistructured interview regarding exercise. After participants completed their respective semistructured interviews, they were again instructed to evaluate the interviewers. Results indicated both semistructured interviews enhanced evaluations. However, interviewers who administered the SSICECTS were perceived as having greater knowledge and respect of participants' ethnic culture.
Behavior modification, 2006 · doi:10.1177/0145445505276096