What are the problems that occur when comparisons are made across ethnic groups?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ann Kathleen Burlew and her colleagues (2009) note the following limitations with race
group comparisons: It ignores within-group differences for each ethnic group. Such a
strategy assumes that each group is homogeneous, yet this is not the case. Both the
presence and absence of mean score group differences may lead to wrong conclusions.
The absence of group differences may lead to the premature combining of the groups;
there may be relationships to other variables that might be missed. The presence of mean
score differences may lead the researcher to attribute too much meaning to the finding
and may contribute to ethnic stereotyping. The results may be misleading if the measures
are not equivalent for each group. Intervention research samples tend to be convenience
samples and therefore may not be representative of the broader population. Participants in
treatment studies may differ from nonparticipants with the same presenting problem.