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Jang Y, Chiriboga DA, Park NS, Yoon H, Cho YJ, Hong S, Nam S, Rhee MK, Bernstein KS, Kim MT. The role of self-rated mental health in seeking professional mental health services among older Korean immigrants. Aging Ment Health 2021; 25:1332-1337. [PMID: 32349527 PMCID: PMC7606462 DOI: 10.1080/13607863.2020.1758908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The gap between mental health needs and service use in racial/ethnic minorities continues to be a major public health concern. Focusing on older Korean immigrants, the present study examined linkages among mental distress, self-rated mental health (SRMH), and the use of professional mental health services. We hypothesized that SRMH would play a mediating role in the relationship between mental distress and the use of professional mental health services. METHOD Using data from the Study of Older Korean Americans (SOKA; N = 2,150, Mean age = 73.4), the direct and indirect effect models were tested. RESULTS Nearly 30% of the sample fell within the category of experiencing mental distress, but only a small proportion (5.7%) had used professional mental health services. Supporting our hypothesis, the pathway from mental distress to the use of professional mental health services was influenced by an individual's subjective perception of mental health status: the indirect effect of mental distress on service use through SRMH (.04 [.01]) was significant (bias-corrected 95% confidence interval for the indirect effect = .02, .06). CONCLUSION The findings of this study not only contribute to our understanding of help-seeking processes in a group at high mental health risk but also suggest avenues to promote their use of mental health services.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuri Jang
- Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging, Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA,Corresponding Author: Yuri Jang, Ph.D., Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging, Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, 669 West 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90089; Telephone number: 213-821-6441;
| | - David A. Chiriboga
- Department of Child and Family Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Nan Sook Park
- School of Social Work, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Hyunwoo Yoon
- School of Social Work, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA
| | - Yong Ju Cho
- Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging, Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Seunghye Hong
- Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Hawai‘i, USA
| | - Sanggon Nam
- Department of Public Health, School of Nursing, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, USA
| | - Min-Kyoung Rhee
- Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Kunsook S. Bernstein
- Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
| | - Miyong T. Kim
- School of Nursing, University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA
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Song X, Anderson T, Himawan L, McClintock A, Jiang Y, McCarrick S. An Investigation of a Cultural Help-Seeking Model for Professional Psychological Services With U.S. and Chinese Samples. JOURNAL OF CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY 2019. [DOI: 10.1177/0022022119878506] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Help-seeking processes for participants in the People’s Republic of China and the United States were modeled in the present study. The decision to seek professional services for mental health problems (e.g., psychotherapy) has been primarily studied by applying principles from the theory of planned behavior and reasoned action (TPB). Application of the TPB has commonly been used with a three-level empirical model of help-seeking, whereby expectations/barriers to help-seeking predict attitudes toward therapy, which in turn predicts intentions and behaviors to seek professional help. Informed by the TPB, the present study added a cultural-contextual level to the model to account for the role of cultural identity variables, which included independent and interdependent self-construal as well as gender. The resulting four-level model, the cultural help-seeking (CHS) model, was compared with the conventional three-level help-seeking model using data collected from 296 college students from Mainland China and 334 college students from the United States. Separate analyses were conducted for the Chinese group and American group. Chinese versions of the questionnaires were developed for the present study using translation and back-translation procedures. Using structural regression modeling, the four-level CHS model provided a better fit than the three-level traditional model for both the U.S. and Chinese samples. However, the specific decisional pathways within this four-level model were structurally different for the U.S. and Chinese samples. Findings suggest that including cultural-contextual variables as a first level of the professional help-seeking model is supported by both samples.
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