title: Linkages between mental health need and help-seeking behavior among adolescents: Moderating role of ethnicity and cultural values.
abstract: Risk of developing emotional and behavioral mental health problems increases markedly during adolescence. Despite this increasing need, most adolescents, particularly ethnic minority youth, do not seek professional help. Informed by conceptual models of health behavior, the current study examined how cultural values are related to help seeking among adolescents from 2 distinct racial/ethnic groups. Using a prospective survey design, 169 Vietnamese American and European American youth in 10th and 11th grade reported on their mental health need, as measured by emotional/behavioral mental health symptoms and stressful life events, with participants reporting on their help-seeking behavior at 6-month follow-up assessments. Multinomial logistic regression analyses indicated that mental health need interacted with cultural values and ethnicity to predict help-seeking behavior. Specifically, associations between symptoms and stressful life events, and help-seeking behavior were smaller among Vietnamese American adolescents, and among adolescents with strong family obligation values. These results underscore the complex sociocultural factors influencing adolescents' help-seeking behavior, which have important implications for engaging youth in needed mental health care.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles.
authors.forename: Sisi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles.
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Vanderbilt University.
authors.forename: Bahr
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation.
authors.forename: Victoria K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Ngo
authors.affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles.
authors.forename: Anna S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Lau
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D001213:Asian / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D000066505:Help-Seeking Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D008605:Mental Health Services; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D044465:White People / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology