Research on men's help seeking yields strategies for enhancing men's use of mental and physical health resources. Analysis of the assumptions underlying existing theory and research also provides a context for evaluating the psychology of men and masculinity as an evolving area of social scientific inquiry. The authors identify several theoretical and methodological obstacles that limit understanding of the variable ways that men do or do not seek help from mental and physical health care professionals. A contextual framework is developed by exploring how the socialization and social construction of masculinities transact with social psychological processes common to a variety of potential help-seeking contexts. This approach begins to integrate the psychology of men and masculinity with theory and methodology from other disciplines and suggests innovative ways to facilitate adaptive help seeking.

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Men, masculinity, and the contexts of help seeking.

A vital step in the development of an equal partnership for minorities in the academic, social, and economic life of the United States involves moving away from assumptions of the linear model of cultural acquisition. In this article we review the literature on the psychological impact of being bicultural. Assimilation, acculturation, alternation, multicultural, and fusion models that have been used to describe the psychological processes, social experiences, and individual challenges and obstacles of being bicultural are reviewed and summarized for their contributions and implications for investigations of the psychological impact of biculturalism. Emphasis is given to the alternation model, which posits that an individual is able to gain competence within 2 cultures without losing his or her cultural identity or having to choose one culture over the other. Finally, a hypothetical model outlining the dimensions of bicultural competence is presented.

Psychological impact of biculturalism: Evidence and theory.

The unidimensional model of acculturation posits that heritage and mainstream culture identifications have a strong inverse relation, whereas the bidimensional model posits that the 2 identifications are independent. The authors compared these models in 3 samples of ethnic Chinese (ns = 164, 150, and 204), 1 sample of non-Chinese East Asians (n = 70), and one diverse group of acculturating individuals (n = 140). Although the unidimensional measure showed a coherent pattern of external correlates, the bidimensional measure revealed independent dimensions corresponding to heritage and mainstream culture identification. These dimensions displayed patterns of noninverse correlations with personality, self-identity, and psychosocial adjustment. The authors conclude that the bidimensional model is a more valid and useful operationalization of acculturation.

Is acculturation unidimensional or bidimensional? A head-to-head comparison in the prediction of personality, self-identity, and adjustment.

Objectives. We examined rates of mental health–related service use (i.e., any, general medical, and specialty mental health services) as well as subjective satisfaction with and perceived helpfulness of care in a national sample of Asian Americans, with a particular focus on immigration-related factors.Methods. Data were derived from the National Latino and Asian American Study (2002–2003).Results. About 8.6% of the total sample (n=2095) sought any mental health–related services; 34.1% of individuals who had a probable diagnosis sought any services. Rates of mental health–related service use, subjective satisfaction, and perceived helpfulness varied by birthplace and by generation. US-born Asian Americans demonstrated higher rates of service use than did their immigrant counterparts. Third-generation or later individuals who had a probable diagnosis had high (62.6%) rates of service use in the previous 12 months.Conclusions. Asian Americans demonstrated lower rates of any type of mental health–related ser...

Use of Mental Health-Related Services Among Immigrant and US-Born Asian Americans: Results From the National Latino and Asian American Study

Multicultural researchers and theorists have noted that client adherence to culture-of-origin values plays an important role in the provision of culturally relevant and sensitive psychological services. However, lack of instruments that measure ethnic cultural values has been a shortcoming in past research that attempted to examine this relationship. In this article, the development of the Asian Values Scale (AVS) is described, and the results of 4 studies investigating the psychometric properties of the AVS are reported. The results indicate that the AVS has adequate internal and 2-week test-retest reliability. Also, factor analysis and comparisons of AVS scores to scores on the Individualism-Collectivism Scale (H. Triandis, 1995) and the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale (R. M. Suinn, K. Rickard-Figueroa, S. Lew & P. Vigil, 1987) provided evidence of convergent and divergent validity for the AVS.

The Asian Values Scale: Development, Factor Analysis, Validation, and Reliability.

Asian Americans at a major West Coast university were surveyed to determine how severe each of 24 problems was for them and to assess their willingness to see a counselor for each problem. Factor analysis reduced the 24 problems to 8 areas of concern. A repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that severity ratings for the 8 concerns were related to acculturation and ethnicity. With severity ratings as covariates, a repeated measures analysis of covariance was computed for willingness to see a counselor ratings. Willingness to see a counselor was found to be related to both acculturation and gender across all 8 concerns. Women expressed greater willingness to see the counselor than did men and low-medium acculturated students expressed greater willingness to see a counselor than did high-acculturated students. In an extensive review of research on counseling and psychotherapy with Asian Americans, Leong (1986) concluded that Asian Americans' underutilization of mental health services is well documented, despite some evidence of higher than normal need for services. A number of hypotheses, most of which assume a conflict between the psychotherapy process and the values of traditional A*sian-American culture, have been offered to explain this pattern of underutilization. For example, it has been hypothesized that Asian Americans avoid mental health services because to seek outside help will bring shame upon their families (Root, 1985; Webster & Fretz, 1978). It also has been hypothesized that Asian Americans underutilize mental health services because they are socialized to internalize stress and repress feelings (Sue & Kitano, 1973; Sue & Morishima, 1982). Furthermore, they may be socialized to believe that psychological problems are the result of bad thoughts and a lack of willpower and that they must resolve problems of this type on their own (Root, 1985). Moreover, when Asian-American students do seek help, their presenting concerns are often different from Caucasian students. Sue and Kirk's (1975) study of students at the University of California, Berkeley, revealed that Asian-American students overutilized the campus counseling center but underutilized the psychiatric clinic when compared to general student use patterns. Sue and Kirk suggested that this was due to the less stigmatized services provided by the counseling center (e.g., academic and career counseling) than the services provided at the psychiatric clinic (e.g., mental health counseling); Asian Americans may be more reluctant than other groups to seek help for stigmatized mental health concerns. Tracey, Leong, and Glidden (1986) found additional support for this hypothesis. They reported that Asian-American clients were more likely to cite educational or vocational concerns

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Scott Whiteley

Papers

Asian-American Acculturation, Severity of Concerns, and Willingness to See a Counselor.