Guidelines are offered for mental health professionals who work with economically disadvantaged children and adolescents from culturally diverse backgrounds. These guidelines describe useful theoretical constructs, suggest ways to sensitize assessments of minority children, and outline treatment strategies to obtain better clinical results. The focus is on four minority groups in particular, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and American Indians. These groups encounter multiple stressors and often represent the nation's lowest socioeconomic levels. Concrete suggestions are given for obtaining histories and for selecting diagnostic and treatment strategies. Culturally sensitive intervention is stressed in the many case studies that illustrate the discussions. (Contains 274 references.) (SLD)