A total of 557 Asian-American students (263 Chinese Americans, 185 Japanese Americans, and 109 Korean Americans) completed a survey consisting of a demographic questionnaire, a modified version of the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale, and the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPHS). A 3 x 2 x 2 multivariate analysis with main effects of ethnicity, gender, and level of acculturation and the four subscales of the ATSPHS as the dependent variables resulted in a significant F value for acculturation effect and nonsignificant F values for all other main and interaction effects. Regardless of ethnicity and gender, the most acculturated students were: (a) most likely to recognize personal need for professional psychological help, (b) most tolerant of the stigma associated with psychological help, and (c) most open to discussing their problems with a psychologist. Considerable evidence exists that Asian Americans underutilize mental health services (President's Commission, 1978; Sue & McKinney, 1975), despite the fact that they are subjected to all the stresses experienced by any ethnic minority group (e.g., cultural conflict, racism, and generational conflict) in addition to those experienced by nonminorities. Furthermore, like other ethnic minority groups, Asian Americans who do make use of mental health services have a significantly higher drop-out rate than do White clients (Sue, 1977; Yamamoto, James, & Palley, 1968). A number of explanations, some having to do with the conflict between Asian-American values and the psychotherapy process and some having to do with the inadequacies of traditional mental health services, have been offered for this pattern of underutilization and early termination. With respect to the conflict between cultural values and psychotherapy process, Root (1985) suggested that talking to a mental health worker about psychological problems may be viewed by Asian Americans as bringing disgrace on the family. Instead, Asian Americans may try to resolve their problems on their own, believing that mental health can be maintained by avoiding bad thoughts and exercising will power (Root, 1985). Asian Americans also may internalize stress and express symptoms through somatization and may therefore seek help from medical professionals (Sue & Morishima, 1982; Tseng, 1975). They simply may not view psychological services as a credible source of help.

Asian Americans at a major West Coast university were surveyed to determine how severe each of 24 problems was for them and to assess their willingness to see a counselor for each problem. Factor analysis reduced the 24 problems to 8 areas of concern. A repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that severity ratings for the 8 concerns were related to acculturation and ethnicity. With severity ratings as covariates, a repeated measures analysis of covariance was computed for willingness to see a counselor ratings. Willingness to see a counselor was found to be related to both acculturation and gender across all 8 concerns. Women expressed greater willingness to see the counselor than did men and low-medium acculturated students expressed greater willingness to see a counselor than did high-acculturated students.

Examined the effects of counselor ethnicity and cultural sensitivity and participant sex and acculturation on perceptions of counselor credibility and cultural competence. Asian Americans attending a major west coast university listened to a tape recorded counseling session in which the counselor was described as either Asian-American or Caucasian-American and portrayed as either culture-sensitive or culture-blind. The counselor was rated as more credible and culturally competent under the culture-sensitive portrayal than under the culture-blind portrayal and when introduced as Asian-American than when introduced as Caucasian-American. Although no main effect was found for participant sex or level of acculturation, both variable contributed to several significant interactions. Possible explanations and implications of these results are discussed.

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