Conceptions of Mental Illness among Asian and Caucasian-American Students

Abstract

The attitudes and beliefs of 62 Asian American and 81 Caucasian college students toward mental illness were examined. After controlling for demographic and background variables between students, a number of significant ethnic differences emerged. These results were interpreted in the context of Asian subcultural values and implications for psychotherapeutic practice were drawn.

Asian Cultural Values and the Counseling Process

“…Asian Americans often define mental health in terms of the ability to control one's thoughts; for example, S. Sue, Wagner, Ja, Margullis, and Lew (1976) found that Asian Americans were more likely than European Americans to believe that mental health was due to the avoidance of morbid thoughts. These include the values of not losing face for one's self or family, avoiding drawing attention to one's self, and using self-control to solve personal problems.…”

Attitudes Toward Counselors and Counseling Processes: A Comparison of Chinese and American Graduate Students

“…In a recent review of literature, Leong (1986) concluded that when Asian Americans (a term that most often refers to American-born Chinese and Japanese) seek counseling, they tend to (a) have a lower tolerance of ambiguity, (b) prefer a structured situation, (c) prefer problem-solving over insight-oriented psychotherapy, and (d) exhibit a lower level of verbal and emotional expressiveness. There is evidence of considerable overlap between Asians and Asian-Americans in the conception of mental health and attitudes toward counseling (Lum, 1982;Sue, Wagner, Ja, Margullis, & Lew, 1976). We speculated that native-born Chinese students should hold perceptions and attitudes similar to Asian-American students and different from American students.…”

Cultural factors in help‐seeking for child behavior problems: Value orientation, affective responding, and severity appraisals among Chinese‐American parents

“…For example, traditional Chinese beliefs often attribute behavior problems to supernatural causes such as predetermined destiny stemming from wrongdoing in past lives~Sue, Wagner, Ja, Margullis, & Lew, 1976!, or to predominantly physical causes~Tseng & Hsu, 1970 To the extent that causal attributions influence favored approaches to Cultural Factors in Help-Seeking • solutions, these beliefs might make child psychotherapy seem unproductive to some traditional Chinese parents.…”