Vietnamese American Research Articles

Unpacking the 'black box' of lay health worker processes in a US-based intervention.

Prior studies have supported the effectiveness of the use of Lay Health Workers (LHWs) as an intervention model for managing chronic health conditions, yet few have documented the mechanisms that underlie the effectiveness of the interventions. This study provides a first look into how LHWs delivered a family-based intervention and the challenges encountered. We utilize observation data from LHW-led educational sessions delivered as part of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) designed to test a LHW outreach family-based intervention to promote smoking cessation among Vietnamese American smokers. The RCT included experimental (smoking cessation) and control (healthy living) arms. Vietnamese LHWs were trained to provide health information in Vietnamese to groups of family dyads (smoker and family member). Bilingual, bicultural research team members conducted unobtrusive observations in a subset of LHW educational sessions and described the setting, process and activities in structured fieldnotes. Two team members coded each fieldnote following a grounded theory approach. We utilized Atlas.ti qualitative software to organize coding and facilitate combined analysis. Findings offer a detailed look at the 'black box' of how LHWs work with their participants to deliver health messages. LHWs utilized multiple relational strategies, including preparing an environment that enables relationship building, using recognized teaching methods to engage learners and co-learners as well as using humor and employing culturally specific strategies such as hierarchical forms of address to create trust. Future research will assess the effectiveness of LHW techniques, thus enhancing the potential of LHW interventions to promote health among underserved populations.

Interactive Mobile Doctor (iMD) to Promote Patient-Provider Discussion on Tobacco Use among Asian American Patients in Primary Care: A Pilot Study.

This study examined the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of an interactive "Mobile Doctor" intervention (iMD) for Korean and Vietnamese American men, population groups with high smoking prevalence rates. The iMD delivers 5As (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange) via tailored in-language video messages on a mobile tablet to Korean and Vietnamese male daily smokers right before a health care visit. A single-group trial was conducted with Korean- and Vietnamese-speaking patients at a federally qualified health center. Outcomes were assessed by self-reported surveys obtained postvisit and 3-month follow-up, and by examining electronic health record (EHR) progress notes from 3 consecutive primary care visits to evaluate impacts. Among 47 male daily smokers (87% participation rate), 98% were limited English proficient and 53% had no intent to quit smoking within 6 months. On average, iMD took 12.9 minutes to complete. All participants reported discussing smoking with their providers during the visit, and more than 90% thought iMD was at least somewhat helpful in their decision about quitting and in communicating with their providers. EHR-documented 5As were significantly higher at the iMD visit for Assess (38.3%), Assist (59.6%), and Arrange (36.2%) compared with other visits without iMD. At 3 months, 51% made at least 1 24-hour quit attempt since the intervention. The self-reported 7-day point prevalence abstinence was 19%. iMD is feasible and acceptable to Korean and Vietnamese male smokers, including those who were not intending to quit smoking. It is a promising tool for increasing patient-provider discussion of tobacco use and possibly smoking cessation among Asian American male smokers.

A Rosier Reality: Incongruency in Stated and Revealed Ingroup Preferences among Young Asian American Speed Daters

Several studies have identified inconsistencies between “stated” interpersonal attitudes and those “revealed” after an interaction. The authors used the speed-dating paradigm to examine stated and revealed attitudes in ingroup preferences among Asian American subgroups (Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Filipino Americans). Young single Asian Americans ( n = 198) reported preferences for dating different ethnicities and went on speed dates, after which they could offer second dates to their partners. As expected, all four ethnic subgroups showed clear ingroup biases in stated preferences. Ingroup bias in revealed preferences (measured through date offers and ratings of partners’ mate desirability), however, were minimal. At the individual level, stated ingroup preferences did not significantly predict revealed ingroup preferences. In summary, among young Asian Americans, ingroup preferences may not hold in an interactive scenario. The findings suggest that in the presence of personal cues provided through a brief interaction, people may be less prone to make judgments on the basis of ethnicity, even when consequences extend beyond the laboratory. Furthermore, mechanisms for selecting a partner may differ in “hot” (affective) versus “cold” (cognitive) states.

Resilience: Examining the Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on the Gulf Coast Vietnamese American Community

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DWH) was one of the largest hydrocarbon disasters in US history. The estimated 5 million barrels of oil that poured into the Gulf of Mexico had a devastating impact on the natural environment, as well as on the livelihoods of communities residing along the coastal region. This paper explores resilience in individuals that identify as Vietnamese, presenting findings from a study of three Gulf Coast communities impacted by the DWH oil spill. A 60-min, in-person survey was administered to a total of 326 residents from the Gulf Coast communities of Port Sulphur, LA, Galliano, LA, and Bayou La Batre, AL. Logistic regression outcome and key predictors models were used to determine the probability of having higher levels of resilience. The results of this study highlight the role of age, education, and racial/ethnic identification in fostering resilience following disaster exposure. Identifying as Vietnamese was associated with a decrease in the odds of achieving above-threshold levels of resilience. This study may be viewed as the foundation from which to further explore the unique risk and protective profiles of the Vietnamese population, particularly in regard to those residing in critically vulnerable and disaster-prone areas.

Unwatchable Violence: Historical Affects and the Legacy of the Vietnam War in Vietnamese American Feminist Film

Historians and cultural scholars of the Vietnam War have explored how structures of war and racism continue to shape filmmaking and media (under)representations of Vietnamese in the United States. This examination of structure, however, has inadvertently overlooked the social dimension of representational practices as they are lived and felt by the Vietnamese diaspora. In this article, I analyze Viette (2012), an independent film by filmmaker Mye Hoang which depicts a young Vietnamese American woman coming of age through Orientalized sexual violence, familial domestic violence, and state violence. I argue that Vietnamese American women’s experience as subjects in the United States is informed by relations of domination, as their bodies become sites for competing individual, familial, and national desires. Rather than offering authentic truths about the experiences of refugees from that war, the film deploys unwatchability as an affective register of the historicity of the War and its violent legacies.

Upward or downward? The importance of organizational forms and embedded peer groups for the second generation

Second-generation assimilation outcomes have been hotly debated amongst migration scholars. While there is a general tendency in the literature to emphasize the positive outcomes of ethnic religious organizational participation, this article explores how some youth downwardly assimilate even though they actively take part in such organizations. This project, on the greater Seattle area Vietnamese Buddhist youth organizations, explores how organizations of various forms, and the peer groups formed within these organizations, play a crucial role in mobility outcomes. Based on 53 interviews with second-generation Vietnamese Americans, this study shows how participation in organizations that are based on horizontal peer groups can result in various assimilation outcomes including the creation of oppositional youth cultures, while organizations centered on vertical intergenerational groups can induce normative values. This article suggests migration scholars refocus on studying the processes that lead to different assimilation outcomes.

Measurement Equivalence of English Versus Native Language Versions of the Kessler 6 (K6) Scale: An Examination in Three Asian American Groups.

The use of languages other than English in population-based surveys is necessitated by the linguistic diversities in the United States. However, inclusion of multiple languages in survey data collection raises concerns about whether an instrument administered in different languages functions equivalently across groups. Using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale 6 (K6), the present study examined differential item functioning (DIF) between surveys conducted either in English or the native language of the groups of Chinese Americans (n = 622), Korean Americans (n = 471), and Vietnamese Americans (n = 513). DIF analyses using a series of multiple indicator multiple cause (MIMIC) models showed that there were substantial differences between English and non-English versions in the endorsement of the K6 items, with patterns that differed by ethnicity. The K4 (depressed) showed DIF in all three groups: non-English survey users consistently showed a higher degree of endorsement compared to their English using counterparts. It is speculated that its translated expression in Asian languages may carry less associations with illness/disorder than the English word, thereby making it easy to endorse among Asian language survey users. Findings suggest a lack of measurement equivalence between the K6 administered in English and Asian languages and call for caution in cross-linguistic contexts.

NOAA fishery observers and Vietnamese American fishers in the Southeastern US

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) Observer Program places scientist-observers onto commercial fishing vessels to collect data regarding catch and report violations of relevant regulations. This study examines the experience of Vietnamese American fishers in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama with this federal observer program. It concludes that current observer training inadequately addresses potential language and cultural barriers between fishers and observers, undermining the potential of the observer policy. Based on these findings, it is recommended that observer training be expanded to include cultural sensitivity training and foreign language resources.

Vietnamese-American family caregivers of persons with mental illness: Exploring caregiving experience in cultural context

While involvement of family caregivers can play an important role in the recovery process of persons with serious mental illness (SMI), family caregivers often endure poor health and mental health issues due to caregiving-related distress. These challenges may be exacerbated for Vietnamese American families due to cultural values (e.g., familism and stigma). This qualitative exploratory study examined how Vietnamese American family caregivers of persons with SMI describe their caregiving experience. Using convenience and snowball sampling, the study recruited 21 participants who took part in two Vietnamese-language focus groups. Key findings of the study addressed three themes: (1) the influence of cultural and religious values on caregiving and mental health; (2) the negative impact of caregiving on caregivers' wellbeing; and (3) the stigma attached to mental illness. The study offers useful insights to assist mental health practitioners in tailoring culturally appropriate and effective services for Vietnamese caregivers.

Dementia caregiver intervention development and adaptation in the Vietnamese American community: A qualitative study.

Objectives The purpose of this study was to obtain input and feedback on a proposed intervention to reduce stress and enhance the health of Vietnamese dementia caregivers. Methods Sixteen semi-structured, in-depth interviews and two focus groups were conducted with a total of 21 key stakeholders (i.e., family caregivers, professionals, and community leaders). Results Several themes emerged from the data, and these themes fell into two major domains: the first domain was recruitment and engagement into the intervention: (1) importance of faith-based institutions, (2) inclusion of multiple family members in the intervention, (3) community empowerment/ownership, and (4) importance of credibility and trust. The second domain included themes on intervention content: (1) education about Alzheimer's disease and dementias and (2) tailoring the intervention to caregivers' needs. Conclusions Findings indicate that the proposed intervention could be very beneficial to caregivers, but slight modifications needed to be made.

Holy Mothers in the Vietnamese Diaspora: Refugees, Community, and Nation

Holy mothers, specifically the Vietnamese-looking Our Lady of Lavang and Caodai Mother Goddess, are the crucibles of faith for many Vietnamese Catholics and Caodaists. Based on ethnographic data collected in California, which has the largest overseas Vietnamese population, I argue that Vietnamese refugees and their US-reared descendants have been able to re-centralize their fragmented communities through the innovative adaptation of holy mother worship. In particular, Vietnamese Catholics in the US have transformed the European image of Our Lady of Lavang into a Vietnamese woman and exported it to the rest of the world. Meanwhile, Vietnamese American Caodaists have revived traditional religious rituals for the Caodai Mother Goddess which were repressed and prohibited for many years under communism in Vietnam. Through their shared devotion to holy mothers, these Vietnamese American faithful have also rebuilt relations with co-ethnic co-religionists living throughout the world. For both the Vietnamese Catholic and Caodai groups, holy mothers have emerged as emblems of their deterritorialized nation in the diaspora.

All the Promise in the World: Mobilizing Comparison in The Book of Salt

The central premise of this article is that reading The Book of Salt as a work of world literature shifts the temporal and spatial sites, as well as the reading practices, involved in thinking about Vietnamese American literature and subjectivity away from the effects of the so-called Vietnam War and toward a long historical view that compares how Vietnamese actors have accrued, and continue to accrue, worth within differing regimes of global value. With The Book of Salt inching toward canonical status in the Asian American Studies curriculum, it is clear that Monique Truong's work has emerged as a central text of Vietnamese American literature. However, analyzing the novel solely as a work of Asian American literature may, in fact, limit the promise the book holds due to the conventional marketing and reading practices that frequently reduce a heterogeneous collection of Vietnamese American works to a hermeneutic centred around the “Vietnam War.” In contrast, I propose that reading The Book of Salt as a work of world literature reveals how Truong creates a ground of comparison that reimagines accepted routes of cross-cultural representation, reception, and value. This world literature perspective nudges Vietnamese American writing away from its own shores by delving deep into the history of Vietnamese mobility and reconsiders the multiple promises held within the Vietnamese diasporic past in a way that brings into question a singular construction of the Vietnamese present.

Abstract C60: The role of psychosocial predictors in HBV screening behavior among Vietnamese Americans

Abstract Objectives: Given the substantial disparity in hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection among Vietnamese Americans, it is important to understand what intervention components facilitate behavioral change. In this study, we evaluated the influence of psychosocial factors on HBV screening. Methods: The study sample consists of 1,716 Vietnamese participants in our HBV intervention trial, recruited from 36 community-based organizations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York City between 2009 and 2014. Using Health Belief Model and Social Cognitive Theory, we measured self-efficacy, knowledge, perceived barriers, perceived benefits, perceived severity, and risk susceptibility. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare pre- and post-intervention changes of psychosocial variables. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to explore the direct and indirect effects of the psychosocial variables on HBV screening. Results: Knowledge, self-efficacy, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers were directly associated with HBV screening, with knowledge having the strongest effect. Perceived severity and risk susceptibility had indirect association with HBV screening through other variables. Indirect paths among the 6 psychosocial variables were also identified. Conclusions: To promote HBV screening among Vietnamese Americans, intervention efforts should focus on increasing knowledge, self-efficacy, and perceived benefits; decreasing perceived barriers; and account for the dynamic cognitive processing. Citation Format: Minsun Lee, Lin Zhu, Min Qi Wang, Zhengyu Wei, Yin Tan, Minhhuyen Nguyen, Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi, Grace X. Ma. The role of psychosocial predictors in HBV screening behavior among Vietnamese Americans [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Tenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2017 Sep 25-28; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2018;27(7 Suppl):Abstract nr C60.

The association of perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms among Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese Americans.

Few studies have investigated ethnic differences in discrimination and depressive symptoms, and the link between them among foreign-born Asian Americans. This study identifies if depressive symptoms and perceived discrimination differ by Asian ethnicity, and if perceived discrimination is associated with depressive symptoms among foreign-born Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese Americans. This study uses data from the Asian American Liver Cancer Prevention Program (N = 600). Using nonprobability sampling, foreign-born Asian American adults (58% female, Mage = 47.3 years, SD = 11.82) were recruited from the community in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. Perceived discrimination was defined using everyday and major discrimination scales; the Centers for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale defined the outcome of depressive symptoms. Multiple logistic regressions were conducted to determine if this association exists. A high prevalence of depressive symptoms (one third to one fifth per ethnicity) and ethnic differences between foreign-born Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese Americans were found; increased perceived discrimination was associated with worse depressive symptomology. Those with "high" and "mild discrimination" had greater odds of being depressed than those who had never experienced discrimination; those with "unfair treatment" had greater odds of being depressed than those who had none. Major experiences of discrimination were less common and less likely associated with depressive symptoms than everyday experiences. Foreign-born Asian Americans experience substantial discrimination and depressive symptoms. Future studies should stratify by Asian ethnicity and examine the differences between minor and major experiences of discrimination to provide appropriate mental health prevention and treatment for this population. (PsycINFO Database Record

Weathering Katrina: Culture and Recovery among Vietnamese Americans. By Mark. J. VanLandingham. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2017. Pp. xx+146. $32.50 (paper).

<i>Weathering Katrina: Culture and Recovery among Vietnamese Americans</i>. By Mark. J. VanLandingham. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2017. Pp. xx+146. $32.50 (paper).

“Prospective relations between parent-adolescent acculturation conflict and mental health symptoms among Vietnamese American adolescents” Correction to Nguyen et al. (2018).

Survey measures were administered to 375 Vietnamese American adolescents (48.8% males; M = 15.55 years, SD = .59) at 3 time points over 6 months. Using cross-lagged path analysis, perceived acculturation conflict predicted externalizing symptoms, whereas internalizing symptoms predicted perceived acculturation conflict. Perceived maternal psychological control mediated the association between perceived acculturation conflict and later externalizing symptoms, whereas maternal psychological control, parental unresponsiveness, and unmet parent expectations mediated the association between internalizing symptoms and later acculturation conflict. Culturally competent enhancement of parental sensitivity and responsiveness might be targeted as a modifiable protective factor in family-based preventive interventions for at-risk immigrant families. (PsycINFO Database Record

Ethnic Diversity, Religion, and Opinions toward Legalizing Abortion: The Case of Asian Americans

Over the past four decades, abortion has remained the most controversial domestic issue in the US. Public opinion toward legalizing abortion has been sharply divided yet stable according to several major surveys. This study examines how religion and other important factors affect Asian Americans’ views toward abortion. Data are from the National Asian American Survey 2008 and multivariate analyses are used to examine whether religion exerts a mediation effect and explore attitudinal differences among six major Asian American groups. Results show that Asian Americans resemble the broader society in their opinions toward the abortion issue in that a documented sharp division exists among Asian American respondents. Groups ranked by the level of support for legal abortion are: Japanese, Chinese, Asian Indians, Korean, Filipino/a, and Vietnamese Americans. OLS regression analyses show that religiosity mediates the impact of religious affiliation on opinions toward abortion for Asian Americans who are non-Catholic Christians. Among Asian American who are Catholics, only a partial mediation effect is observed in the analysis. Analysis conducted for each Asian American group shows that different factors exert varying degree of influence in the opinion toward legalized abortion. Thus, an interaction effect of religion and ethnicity is found. Implications concerning ethnic diversity, religion, and opinions toward abortion are discussed in the paper.

2047 Mental illness public stigma, culture, and acculturation among Vietnamese Americans

2047 Mental illness public stigma, culture, and acculturation among Vietnamese Americans

Spatial mining of migration patterns from web demographics

ABSTRACTVolunteered Geographic Information, social media, and data from Information and Communication Technology are emerging sources of big data that contribute to the development and understanding of the spatiotemporal distribution of human population. However, the inherent anonymity of these crowd-sourced or crowd-harvested data sources lack the socioeconomic and demographic attributes to examine and explain human mobility and spatiotemporal patterns. In this paper, we investigate an Internet-based demographic data source, personal microdata databases publicly accessible on the World Wide Web (hereafter web demographics), as potential sources of aspatial and spatiotemporal information regarding the landscape of human dynamics. The objectives of this paper are twofold: (1) to develop an analytical framework to identify mobile population from web demographics as an individual-level residential history data, and (2) to explore their geographic and demographic patterns of migration. Using web demographics of Vietnamese–Americans in Texas collected in 2010 as a case study, this paper (1) addresses entity resolution and identifies mobile population through the application of a Cost-Sensitive Alternative Decision Tree (CS-ADT) algorithm, (2) investigates migration pathways and clusters to include both short- and long-distance patterns, and (3) analyze the demographic characteristics of mobile population and the functional relationship with travel distance. By linking the physical space at the individual level, this unique methodology attempts to enhance the understanding of human movement at multiple spatial scales.

Book Review: Weathering Katrina: Culture and Recovery among Vietnamese Americans

Book Review: Weathering Katrina: Culture and Recovery among Vietnamese Americans