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Asian American Parents’ Beliefs About Helpful Strategies for Addressing Adolescent Mental Health Concerns at Home and School

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Abstract

Asian American adolescents tend to underutilize mental health services at school and often do not receive the mental health services they need. Parents play an important role in youth mental health service utilization. However, few studies have examined Asian American parents’ knowledge and beliefs about the help-seeking process. The present qualitative study explores Asian American parents’ beliefs about helpful strategies for addressing youth mental illness (i.e., depression and eating disorders) with special attention to school-based strategies. Nineteen Asian American parents (M = 46.05 years, SD = 4.2) completed a semi-structured interview. The interviews were coded for themes to understand Asian American parents’ beliefs about helpful strategies for addressing youth mental illness. Four general themes relating to ways of addressing youth mental health concerns emerged: providing social support, teaching and educating about mental health, seeking professional help, and identifying the problem and finding the cause. The roles that the school and culture play in each of these strategies are discussed. Implications are given for school-based mental health providers based on the finding.

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Acknowledgements

This Project was supported by funding from Psychological Association (APA), Promoting Psychological Research and Training on Health Disparities Issues at Ethnic Minority Serving Institutions (ProDIGs) Small Research Grant. The authors also want to thank Dr. Shawn Bediako and Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble for being the mentors for this Project.

Funding

This study was funded by American Psychological Association Promoting Psychological Research and Training on Health Disparities Issues at Ethnic Minority Serving Institutions (ProDIGS) Grant (no Grant Number).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education, Faculty Affiliate Asian American Studies Program, 3234 Benjamin Building, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Cixin Wang

  2. Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education, 3105 Benjamin Building, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Kristen Frese Marsico

  3. Department of Human Ecology, 2103 Richard A. Henson Center, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, MD, 21853, USA

    Kieu Anh Do

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  1. Cixin Wang
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Correspondence to Cixin Wang.

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Wang, C., Marsico, K.F. & Do, K.A. Asian American Parents’ Beliefs About Helpful Strategies for Addressing Adolescent Mental Health Concerns at Home and School. School Mental Health 12, 523–536 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-020-09362-1

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