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Mental Health Help-Seeking Experience and Attitudes in Asian American, Multiracial American, and White American Emerging Adults

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Abstract

In this cross-sectional survey, we examined the direct and indirect mental health help-seeking experiences and relevant psychological factors in Asian American, multiracial American, and White American emerging adults aged 18–25 years old. The study sample consisted of 384 Asian American (249 women, 135 men), 244 multiracial American (172 women, 72 men), and 245 White American (190 women, 55 men) emerging adults, who were recruited from a four-year public university in the state of Hawaiʻi of the United States (U.S.). Results revealed that Asian American and multiracial American emerging adults were less likely to: (a) have previous experience of seeking professional psychological services: (b) have been prescribed, or are currently taking, a psychotropic medication; (c) know someone close to them who had sought psychological services; or (d) know someone close to them who was diagnosed with a psychological disorder, compared to their White American peers. We also discuss implications of the present findings, limitations of the study, and future directions in this line of research.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, 96822-2294, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Lisa Nakamura, Duckhyun Jo & Akihiko Masuda

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  1. Lisa Nakamura
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  2. Duckhyun Jo
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  3. Akihiko Masuda
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Contributions

The first author led the literature review, discussed research questions with the third author, wrote and revised the manuscript. The senior author ran data analysis and wrote and revised the final version of manuscript. The third author is the senior author, supervising and leading all aspects of manuscript writing, including data analysis and manuscript writing.

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Correspondence to Akihiko Masuda.

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Ethical statements

The present study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

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Given the online nature of the present study, all participants electronically consented to join the present study.

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Nakamura, L., Jo, D. & Masuda, A. Mental Health Help-Seeking Experience and Attitudes in Asian American, Multiracial American, and White American Emerging Adults. Int J Adv Counselling 44, 432–452 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-022-09470-4

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