The present study examined whether popular self-report measures of depression could be distinguished from self-report measures of anxiety and social desirability response style. Subjects were 391 college students (135 males and 256 females). The scales included the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Lubin Depression Adjective Checklist, the State and Trait forms of the Spielberger Anxiety Inventory, the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, Endler, Hunt, and Rosenstein's S-R Inventory of Anxiousness, the Crowne-Marlowe Social Desirability Scale, and the Edwards Social Desirability Scale. Reliability estimates indicated that all these measures were internally consistent. Pearson correlation coefficients indicated strong relationships between measures of depression and between measures of anxiety. However, pairs of anxiety and depression measures correlated almost as strongly. All depression and anxiety measures were significantly associated with the Edwards Social Desirability Scale. These findings call into question the use of a self-report measure of depression to select "depressed" subjects among college students.

Perceived causes of mental illness and help-seeking preferences among Japanese-American and White American college students (72 men and 72 women in each ethnic group) were compared in order to investigate the reported underuse of mental health services by Japanese Americans. Results of a 2 (ethnicity of subject) x 2 (severity of disorder) x 2 (gender of person with disorder) x 2 (gender of subject) multivariate analysis of variance revealed that Japanese-American students were more likely than White American students to attribute mental illness to social causes, to resolve problems on their own, and to seek help from family members or friends or both. Possible barriers to use of services by this sample of Japanese Americans include both a preference for informal resources and the stigmatization of mental illness.A consistent and well-documented finding in studies on Japanese Americans is the significant underuse of mental health services by this ethnic group (Leong, 1986;S. Sue & Morishima, 1982). Such underuse has been reported in a variety of settings, including university psychiatric clinics (D.

The Asian family is regarded as a close-knit social unit in which elderly people are believed to occupy a highly respected position. Family members are thought to provide care for elderly parents gratefully because of filial piety. This stereotypic portrayal of Asian families, however, may not apply fully to Japanese families. This article points out misunderstandings and stereotypic views of family caregiving of Japanese elderly people. The article describes how the cultural virtue of filial piety has been incorrectly identified as the major factor influencing underutilization of social services among Japanese family caregivers. The authors provide new insights into Japanese family caregiving by describing the concept of sekentei and how this concept may influence family caregiving of elderly family members and underutilization of social services among Japanese caregivers.

This study investigated psychosocial and contextual predictors of self-efficacy beliefs about educational and occupational attainment among Hispanic adolescents living in the inner-city. Participants were 107 adolescents ages 10 to 13 (mean=11.3 years) recruited from two inner-city elementary schools in Los Angeles via active parental and student consent. Three psychosocial predictors (previous performance; vicarious experience; social persuasion), based on Bandura’s theory ofself-efficacy, and two contextual predictors (neighborhood resources and neighborhood safety) were hypothesized to predict self-efficacy beliefs. Results showed that social persuasion most strongly predicted both educational and occupational expectations. Previous academic performance, represented by reading score, was related to educational but not occupational expectations. Vicarious experience in the form of family attainment did not predict educational nor occupational expectations. Contextual predictors were also unrelated to both domains of expectations. Results suggest that self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents growing up in inner-city environments can be influenced by the messages they receive from significant others as well as by their prior experiences.

The relationship between depression and body-image satisfaction in different ethnic groups was investigated by comparing depressed and nondepressed males and females from Caucasian-American, Chinese-American, and Japanese-American college samples. It was hypothesized that depressed respondents would manifest significantly higher levels of body-image dissatisfaction than nondepressed respondents, regardless of ethnicity and gender. The results supported the hypothesis. As a function of the depression condition, however, there are numerous ethnic and gender differences with regard to dissatisfaction with specific body parts (e.g., increased "facial" and "physique" dissatisfaction for depressed Chinese-American females). Depression, it seems, exacerbates levels of existing body-image dissatisfaction for some groups, introduces new areas of body-image dissatisfaction for others, and does not alter the image for yet others. It was further noted that research in this area could help improve our understanding about the etiology and expression of depression.