Eugenics, genetics, and mental illness stigma in Chinese Americans

Abstract

Background The increasing interest in the genetic causes of mental disorders may exacerbate existing stigma if negative beliefs about a genetic illness are generally accepted. China’s history of policy-level eugenics and genetic discrimination in the workplace suggests that Chinese communities will view genetic mental illness less favorably than mental illness with non-genetic causes. The aim of this study is to identify differences between Chinese Americans and European Americans in eugenic beliefs and stigma toward people with genetic mental illness. Methods We utilized data from a 2003 national telephone survey designed to measure how public perceptions of mental illness differ if the illness is described as genetic. The Chinese American (n = 42) and European American (n = 428) subsamples were analyzed to compare their support of eugenic belief items and measures of stigma. Results Chinese Americans endorsed all four eugenic statements more strongly than European Americans. Ethnicity significantly moderated the relationship between genetic attribution and three out of five stigma outcomes; however, genetic attribution actually appeared to be de-stigmatizing for Chinese Americans while it increased stigma or made no difference for European Americans. Conclusions Our findings show that while Chinese Americans hold more eugenic beliefs than European Americans, these attributions do not have the same effect on stigma as they do in Western cultures. These results suggest that future anti-stigma efforts must focus on eugenic attitudes as well as cultural beliefs for Chinese Americans, and that the effects of genetic attributions for mental illness should be examined relative to other social, moral, and religious attributions common in Chinese culture.

Culture, threat, and mental illness stigma: Identifying culture-specific threat among Chinese-American groups

“…Like other studies (Furnham & Wong, 2007), ‘tangible’ threat among Chinese-Americans was endorsed more highly. Further, that threat of genetic contamination was greater among Chinese-Americans corroborates greater concerns of genetic transmission of mental illness in this group (Wonpat-Borja et al., 2010). Regarding ‘symbolic’ threat, only anger was significantly higher in Chinese-Americans.…”

“…Because lineage is perpetuated through marriage, we propose that mental illness stigma in Chinese-Americans will pose a threat via suspected psychiatric history in the family ancestry and the genetic make-up of marriage candidates (Wonpat-Borja et al, 2010). We thereby used threat of genetic contamination through marriage as a proxy measure to infer the existence of a culture-based lineage threat among Chinese-Americans.…”

Causal Beliefs and Effects upon Mental Illness Identification Among Chinese Immigrant Relatives of Individuals with Psychosis

“…Such treatment-based psychoeducation might, in addition to emphasizing biomedical models, address the cultural frameworks that situate ‘disruptions in thinking’, ‘spirit possession’, and ‘effect of past lives’ as causal agents for psychotic symptomatology. Rather than seeking to replace indigenous causal beliefs with biological or genetic formulations (Wonpat-Borja et al in press), it may be more productive to instead supplement existing indigenous models to prompt accurate recognition of mental illness. For example, relatives following psycho-education are able to differentiate between when ‘disruption in thinking’ crosses over from what the community considers normative behavior to expressions recognized as a form of mental ‘illness’ (Yang et al 2010a).…”

Tangible Needs and External Stressors Faced by Chinese American Families with a Member Having Schizophrenia

“…Asians being the "model minority" with good health and mental health and socioeconomic stability has been proven a myth ( Sue et al, 2012). The extreme cultural stigma ascribed to mental illness can further alienate efforts to seek social support from within the community ( WonPat-Borja, Yang, Link, & Phelan, 2012) and dampen efforts to seek external help ( Abe-Kim et al, 2007). When coupled with a cultural obligation to care for their family members, caregiver stress is aggravated ( Zegwaard, Aartsen, Grypdonck, & Cuijpers, 2013).…”