Psychiatric Distress Among Asian and European American Survivors of the 1994 Northridge Earthquake

Abstract

Relatively few studies focus on the psychological effects of trauma exposure on Asian Americans. This article presents secondary analyses of a random survey of 118 Asian American and 762 European American survivors of the 1994 Northridge, California earthquake. Asian American participants reported more psychiatric distress and were more than twice as likely to meet caseness criteria on the Brief Symptom Inventory. Ethnic differences remained after accounting for group differences in age, immigrant status, and exposure to the earthquake. Moreover, moderator analyses showed that Asian Americans were not more sensitive to these risk factors but that ethnic differences were explained by the interaction of ethnicity and having a foreign born parent. Though more work needs to be done to understand the basis of these differences, these findings challenge model minority myths about Asian American people and draw attention to their potential need for greater mental health resources following a natural disaster.