Mental Health Service Use and Willingness to Seek Professional Help Among Asian Americans

Purpose.  The gap between mental health needs and service use among racial/ethnic minorities has been persistent. The present study focused on Asian Americans and addressed the underlying issues of their underutilization of mental health services. Using Andersen’s behavioral health model as a conceptual framework, the study explored contributing factors to mental health service use and willingness to seek professional help. The sets of variables considered were: (1) predisposing (demographics), (2) mental health needs (diagnosis of psychiatric disorders and self-rated mental health), and (3) enabling variables (health insurance, English proficiency, perceived stigma, and social network). Because the prior exposure to services is a critical determinant in help-seeking process, we also considered mental health service use as an important predictor of willingness to seek professional help.

Methods.  The data were drawn from the 2002 National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). Self-identified Asian Americans aged 18 to 95 (n=2095) were included in the analyses. Separate logistic regression models were estimated for mental health service use and willingness to help professional help with the aforementioned sets of predictors. For the model of willingness to seek professional help, mental health service use was added as a final step.

Results.  The proportion of individuals with any psychiatric disorder was 9.5%. Among them, only 29.8% had used mental health services in the past year. Mental health service use was more likely among individuals who were females (OR = 1.50, p < .05), unmarried (OR = 1.82, p < .01), and born in U.S. (OR = 1.92, p < .01). In the subsequent model, both the presence of psychiatric disorders (OR = 8.24, p < .001) and fair/poor ratings of mental health (OR = 2.12, p < .01) increased the likelihood of mental health service use. Among various enabling variables, significance was observed only in perceived stigma. The likelihood of mental health service use was reduced by 39% when an individual had perceived stigma. In the model of the willingness to seek professional help, individuals with male gender (OR = 0.70, p < .01), the presence of psychiatric disorders (OR = 0.68, p < .05), fair/poor ratings of mental health (OR = 0.66, p < .05), perceived stigma (OR = 0.75, p < .05), and lower levels of social network (OR = 0.69, p < .01) were less likely to be willing.   However, previous use of mental health service was not significant in predicting the willingness to seek professional help.

Implications.  Findings provide empirical support for the critical role of perceived stigma as a service barrier among Asian Americans. Interestingly, the prior use of mental health services had no impact on their willingness to seek professional help, raising a concern about the quality of the mental health services received. The overall findings provide implications for efforts to bridge the gap between mental health care needs and service use among Asian Americans.