Understanding the Influences of Asian-American Parenting on Adolescents’ Mental Health and Help-Seeking Behavior

Abstract

Asian-American parents and children are less likely to be diagnosed with mental health disorders and pursue mental health treatment compared to their white counterparts, which highlights racial disparities in mental healthcare access or reporting in Asian-American populations. One of the contributing factors may be due to lower rates of mental health literacy among parents. As parents often are figures who seek mental health support for their children, the mental health literacy of all parents is understood to have a significant impact on their children’s access to mental health treatment. Due to parental consent required for children to receive mental health treatment, parents must be a cooperative figure to not only allow their children to have access to the help they need, but also an encouraging figure in the event they discover that their child may be in need of help. The scope of this review aims to understand cultural and societal origins of mental health stigma. These include types of mental health conceptualization within Asian-American households. This review also aims to evaluate the impact of mental health attitudes, perception, and literacy of Asian-American parents on youths’ access and youths’ self stigmatization rates across multiple studies. The findings of this review will help institutions, providers and educators become more culturally competent and benefit adolescents in Asian-American households restrictive to their mental health care needs.