Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy With Asian Americans.

Abstract

Asian Americans are one of the most diverse and fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States, having grown 204% between 1980 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002. Asian Americans consist of over 30 different ethnic groups, comprise approximately 4-4% of the U.S. population, and are expected to continue growing (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003). Although the number of groups that collectively make up Asian Americans is large, unfortunately, the amount of treatment research focused on them is quite limited (Iwamasa, 1996(Iwamasa, , 1999(Iwamasa, , 2003. An additional complication is that because of the diversity within the Asian American population, existing research has limitations.Although people of diverse Asian ethnicities are often grouped together because of a lack of available participants, studies often do not address ethnic or generational differences, and many of the studies are conducted on English-speaking students attending U.S. universities. Thus, any information gleaned from these studies has limited generalizability. Acknowledging these limitations, researchers have identified some similarities across Asian ethnic groups that can be useful to clinicians. In addition, awareness of the marked cultural, political, and environmental differences among and within groups may assist therapists in providing culturally competent treatment. However, it must be stressed that each culture as well as each individual has unique 117

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