No abstract

This study examined the extent to which perceived occupational barriers and perceived parental support predicted career certainty and career indecision in a sample of African American adolescents. Perceived occupational barriers were positively predictive of career indecision, and perceived parental support was positively associated with career certainty. The results provided support for the importance of considering contextual variables, such as perceived occupational barriers and perceived parental support, in the career decision-making processes of African American adolescents. The results also highlighted the salience of social cognitive career theory in conceptualizing career-related issues in African American high school students. Future research directions are discussed.

This study investigated the relationships among Africentric cultural values (i.e., the extent to which an individual adheres to a worldview emphasizing communalism, unity, harmony, spirituality, and authenticity), favorable psychological help-seeking attitudes, perceived counseling stigma, and selfconcealment (i.e., the tendency to withhold personal, sensitive information that is perceived as negative or upsetting) in a sample of African American college students. The authors found that for both African American women and men, higher degrees of Africentric cultural values were associated with greater perceived stigma about counseling and greater self-concealment. In addition, findings indicated that neither favorable psychological help-seeking attitudes nor perceived counseling stigma significantly mediated the relationship between Africentric cultural values and self-concealment behavior. Implication of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

The primary purpose of this study was to test a path model exploring the relationships among Africentric cultural values, self-esteem, perceived social support satisfaction, and life satisfaction in a sample of 147 African American adolescent girls. This investigation also examined the possible mediating effects of self-esteem and perceived social support satisfaction in the relationship between adherence to Africentric cultural values and life satisfaction in this sample. Although no significant mediating effects were found, results indicated that greater adherence to Africentric cultural values among African American adolescent girls was predictive of higher levels of both self-esteem and perceived social support satisfaction. Higher levels of self-esteem were then significantly predictive of greater life satisfaction. However, perceived social support satisfaction was not significantly predictive of life satisfaction in this sample of girls. Future research directions are identified.

This study investigated the mental health help-seeking intentions and its correlates among Chinese international students in the U.S. higher education system. An analytic cross-sectional study was conducted. Recruitment of participants occurred via a social media campaign, and participants were invited to complete an online anonymous survey. A total of 222 Chinese international students participated in the study. The majority of the participants were female (65.3%), graduate students (84.7%), and the only child in the family (83.8%). The participants had a mean age of 23.75 years old. When encountering mental health-related problems, participants reported the highest help-seeking intentions for an intimate partner, parent, and friend. A higher level of general mental health help-seeking intentions was associated with a higher level of coping self-efficacy, a higher level of social support, a lower level of stigma, being undergraduate students, and having no history of full-time employment. These findings indicated the preferred sources for mental health help seeking and the need to improve the general mental health help seeking among Chinese international students. Culturally tailored programs are needed that take into consideration Chinese cultural attitudes and beliefs with regard to mental and emotional symptoms of distress.