School-based mental health prevention for Asian American adolescents: Risk behaviors, protective factors, and service use.

Abstract

This study drew on epidemiological data from a large urban school district to evaluate the implementation of a school-based mental health (SBMH) prevention initiative at 15 high schools. The purpose of this research was to measure the prevalence of student risk factors and protective factors by race and ethnicity and assess the engagement of Asian youth in prevention services. Results indicated statistically significant racial and ethnic group differences in the prevalence of risk factors (self-reported depressive symptoms, substance use, externalizing behavior at school, failing grades, truancy, and discrimination by school adults and peers), and protective factors (school, home, and peer assets). Controlling for gender, family structure, risk behaviors, protective factors, and school composition, Black (OR = 2.31, p < .001), Latino (OR = 1.36, p < .05), and multiracial (OR = 1.42, p < .01) students had significantly higher odds of using their SBMH program than Asian students. Among Asian ethnic subgroups, Cambodian youth (OR = .62, p < .01), were the only group that had lower odds of accessing school-based services than their Chinese peers. Findings suggest that, to reach underserved Asian American adolescents, prevention programs must address cultural and contextual influences on adolescent help seeking when program outreach and enrollment strategies are being developed. Additional research in the field of prevention science is needed to understand the mechanisms driving patterns of prevention service use by race and ethnicity.

Annual review of Asian American Psychology, 2013.

“…Nguyen & Bornheimer, 2014); or they studied the extent of mental health service utilization among a specific Asian American ethnic group (H. B. Lee, Han, Huh, Kim, & Kim, 2014;Ngo, Gibbons, Scire, & Le, 2014). Four studies focused on adolescents' mental health service use (e.g., school-based mental health service use; Anyon et al, 2014;Bear et al, 2014;Brice et al, 2014;, and the other studies focused on the service use of adults in different periods of adulthood (n = 7; e.g., J. E. . All studies used cross-sectional designs and quantitative methods (e.g., analysis of variance, multiple regression, and logistic regression).…”

“…With respect to service utilization, studies investigated parity or disparity of mental health service use among multiple racial/ethnic groups, including Asian Americans (n = 8; Anyon et al, 2014;Bear, Finer, Guo, & Lau, 2014;Brice et al, 2014;H. Cho, Kim, & Velez-Ortiz, 2014;S.…”

“…We continued using Wei's (2014) categories, but given the larger number of articles for this topic area published in 2014 compared to 2013, we divided one category, help seeking and service utilization (Wei et al, 2014), into two: help-seeking attitudes (n = 11; e.g., P. Y. and service utilization (n = 12; e.g., Anyon, Ong, & Whitaker, 2014), while keeping the category of culturally competent interventions (n = 7; e.g., Huang et al, 2014).…”

“…Total ns for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 are 134, 261, 204, 89*, 271, and 316, respectively. 4,5,7,32,39,60,62,63,74,75,80,88,89,91,96,105,120,137,139,140,145,167,168,190,196,198,199,203,207,210,212,258,262,268,281,294,295,296,298,312 Pacific Islander ---8 *…”

“…This is an exciting period in the history of Asian American psychology, and we look forward to the continued progression and advancement of the field. Table 1 Topic Areas and Number of Articles Within Each Topic Across Annual Reviews , 8, 12, 13, 14, 18, 20, 21, 22, 30, 32, 36, 43, 53, 55, 60, 66, 76, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 94, 95, 96, 99, 100, 109, 111, 114, 115, 122, 138, 140, 145, 146, 151, 173, 179, 190, 193, 198, 200, 203, 205, 207, 208, 210, 217, 218, 219, 227, 228, 229, 230, 232, 237, 239, 241, 242, 243, 246, 250, 251, 254, 255, 256, 262, 264, 267, 269, 270, 271, 274, 275, 278, 279, 281, 284, 292, 298, 311, 313, 315 Counseling and clinical issues 14 24 (20) 16 (11) 19 16 29 4,9,15,37,39,72,77,92,98,102,104,135,139,…”