Cultural Responsiveness in Assessment, Implementer Training, and Intervention in School, Home, and Community Settings: A Systematic Review

The purpose of the current systematic review was to synthesize and evaluate the empirical database to assist researchers and practitioners in conducting culturally responsive research and implementing culturally responsive practices for children and adolescents from culturally diverse backgrounds. After screening 16,249 articles through journal and electronic database searches, a final selection of 22 peer-reviewed articles were included in the review. These experimental group and single-subject design studies addressed cultural responsiveness in assessment, implementer training, and intervention yielding positive behavioral, social skills, academic, and social–emotional outcomes for children and adolescents from diverse cultural backgrounds across school, home, and community settings. The studies were published across 15 journals (2010–2022) and included 281 implementers and 536 children and adolescents. Results showed that all but one study addressed most rubric items of quality indicators for culturally responsive experimental research (Bal & Trainor, Review of Educational Research, 86(2), 319–359, 2016) to some extent, and most studies addressed a majority of culturally sensitive elements of the Ecological Validity Model (EVM; Bernal et al., Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 23(1), 67–82, 1995). Most studies reported cultural responsiveness in intervention, whereas fewer described cultural adaptations to assessment and implementer training. Cultural adaptations that were made within the studies as well as suggestions for making adaptations within assessment, implementer training, and intervention delivery are described.