Author : Debra J. Fan
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (881 download)
Book Synopsis Help-seeking Attitudes in Monolingual Mandarin-speaking Chinese Americans by : Debra J. Fan
Download or read book Help-seeking Attitudes in Monolingual Mandarin-speaking Chinese Americans written by Debra J. Fan and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Empirical studies have shown that cultural stigma has a significant impact that lessens help-seeking behaviors related to symptoms of mental illness among Chinese Americans. The Chinese culture places great emphasis on emotional constraint and self-control (Hodges & Oei, 2007). Because of this, Chinese Americans exercise specific communicative strategies that are linked to their coping strategies in that they internalize emotions in the effort to save face (Hodges & Oei, 2007). Wellness, recovery, and self-management programs are holistic and client-driven while wellness-focused programs have been shown to improve client reported self-worth, decreased mental illness stigma, and increased overall quality of life (Metcalfe, 2007; Sterling, Esenwein, Tucker, Fricks, & Druss, 2010). The social facilitation program "Cooking with Friends" was designed as a consumer-driven program that facilitates wellness and recovery by emphasizing peer support, psychoeducation, and self-confidence building. Participants in this 18 week program completed self-report symptom inventories (Beck Depression Inventory-II, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Symptom Check List-90R Somatization Subscale), the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help scale, and program evaluations at four different time intervals. The purpose of this study was to investigate if this wellness and recovery focused program had destigmatizing effects on help-seeking attitudes in Mandarin-speaking Chinese Americans. It was hypothesized that the more sessions that participants attended, the better their attitudes toward seeking mental health services would become. Additionally it was hypothesized that the more sessions that participants attended the fewer psychological symptoms they would be likely to report. Results of a one-way ANOVA showed that there was no relationship between the number of sessions that the participants attended and their reports on these self-report inventories. However, a qualitative analysis of the program evaluations showed that there were progressive changes in mental health perspectives as well as positive changes in help-seeking attitudes over sessions. Due to the small number of participants and their inconsistent attendance at this community driven mental health program, it is suggested the help-seeking attitudes in this population be further investigated in a larger sample.