A total of 10 focus groups were conducted with students, parents, teachers, and school counseling and support personnel to investigate the cultural adjustment process of Chinese immigrant youth using an ecological framework. Multi-informant data were analyzed using the grounded theory (A. Strauss & J. M. Corbin, 1998) method. Findings reveal 6 main themes: socioeconomic changes due to immigrant status; English proficiency as a barrier to adjustment; changes in family structure and dynamics, racism, and invisibility; challenges to social support systems; and interdependent strategies for navigating in the United States. Results highlight the dynamic interaction and tensions created across themes and ecological contexts. The need for school- and community-based counseling interventions that address Chinese immigrant youths' losses and foster their resiliency and supportive networks are discussed.

Our study investigated the use of individualistic and collectivistic coping strategies among Asian American family members of victims of the World Trade Center (WTC) attacks on September 11th, 2001. Interviews were conducted with 11 Asian Americans who had lost a member of their family in the WTC attacks. Using the Discovery-Oriented Research analysis (Mahrer, 1988), results indicated that Asian Americans utilized the following collectivistic coping methods to deal with their losses: individualistic coping, familial coping, intracultural coping, relational universality, forbearance, fatalism/ spirituality, and indigenous healing methods. Additionally, our research found that cultural stigmata, privacy issues, and lack of culturally responsive counselors were factors in participants not utilizing available mental health services. Implications for culturally appropriate services, counseling, and research are discussed.

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This study explored the effects of family, peer, and school risk and supportive factors on internalizing problems (i.e., depressive and anxiety symptoms). Risk factors included peer (i.e., relational and overt victimization) and family risk factors (i.e., mother/father alienation and family conflict). Protective factors included peer (i.e., peer trust and communication), family (i.e., parent trust and communication), and school supportive factors (i.e., bonding with a teacher and school interest). Based on a sample of low-income, Chinese immigrant, high school students (N = 286), structural equation modeling was used to investigate main effects of family, peer, and school risk and supportive factors on internalizing problems as well as the moderating effects of supportive factors on the link between risk factors and internalizing problems. Peer and family risk factors as well as family and school supportive factors significantly predicted anxiety and depressive symptoms in the expected directions. However, peer supportive factors did not predict internalizing problems. The moderation analyses revealed that only school supportive factors moderate the effects of family risk factors on internalizing problems. Implications for research and counseling with Asian immigrants are discussed.

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