Etiology, Ethnicity, Ecclesia: Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Christian Faith-Based Leaders' Readiness to Address Youth Mental Health

Background and Purpose:  Although viewed as a model minority group, Korean immigrant youth experience significant stressors and have high rates of substance use and mental health disorders.  Acculturation related challenges and stigma toward mental illness may be barriers as youth rely on less acculturated parents, who may have weak ties to formal service providers and programs.  However, nearly 70% of Korean immigrant families attend Christian churches (Pew Research Center, 2012), and congregation members, especially pastors have been identified as gatekeepers to community resources (Granovetter, 1973).  The extent to which pastors refer, or offer informal supportive services that could address these needs is not well understood; beliefs of the pastors and the resources within each church likely affect their response toward youth mental health issues.

The aim of this presentation is to compare Korean and Euro-American Christian pastors’ beliefs about mental illness etiology and to examine opportunities for pastoral influence via existing church programs and activities (e.g., parenting education/seminars and family support groups) to address mental health needs of youth.  Ultimately, the goal is to better understand the mechanisms underlying disparities in access to services by ethnic minorities.

Methods:  Approximately 1000 surveys were mailed to Presbyterian churches in California based on publically available directories, which included Korean immigrant churches.  We excluded pastors who were neither European-American nor Korean. Our final sample consisted of 202 Presbyterian clergy (123 European-Americans and 79 Koreans) ranging from 30 to 79 years old (M = 54.58, SD = 8.82).  Chi-square tests of independence (2x3) were performed to examine the relation between pastor ethnicity and perceived causes of mental illness that were coded after collapsing a 5-point Likert scale to three options (very important, important to somewhat important and not important).  Additional chi-square tests were conducted to examine church activities (coded as present or absent) within the past two years that could facilitate pastoral interventions targeting the needs of youth.

Findings:  The relations between ethnicity and all queried causes of mental illness were statistically significant, except for ratings on genetic causes that were highly endorsed across groups.  Notably, 99% of Korean pastors rated “bad parenting” as somewhat to very important, compared to 72% of European-American pastors (p<.01).  Despite this highly endorsed etiology, churches largely neglected family-youth related programs or services.  Only 38% of Korean and 26% of European-American pastors reported that their churches offer parenting workshops/education seminars (p=.05) and fewer (4% among Koreans and 16% among European-Americans) offered support groups for family members and caregivers (p<.01).

Conclusions and Implications:  Despite a low response rate, our findings support the need to explore expansion of parent-centered interventions within the church community to address youth mental health challenges.  The findings also indicate that other barriers and challenges exist in facilitating pastoral intercession despite the existing programs that support mental health services and education for Korean youth.