| The present study investigated the relationship among adherence to Asian American cultural values, loss of face and self-concealment with attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. One hundred ninety-nine participants (ages 18-40 years) completed either an on-line survey or in-person, paper-and-pencil survey assessing adherence to five Asian American cultural values, including collectivism, conformity to norms, emotional self-control, family recognition through achievement, and humility; concern for loss of face; self-concealment; and four domains of help-seeking attitudes, including recognition of need, stigma tolerance, interpersonal openness, and confidence in mental health professionals. Adherence to Asian American cultural values, concern for loss of face and self-concealment were negatively associated with total help-seeking attitudes and its subscales. Greater adherence to emotional self-control significantly predicted less favorable overall attitudes toward help-seeking and less recognition of need for psychological help, above and beyond the effects of relevant demographic background variables. Greater adherence to emotional self-control and self-concealment, plus lower adherence to collectivism, predicted lower stigma tolerance associated with help-seeking. Adherence to emotional self-control and self-concealment negatively predicted interpersonal openness to discussing personal problems with a psychological professional. Greater adherence to emotional self-control and less concern for loss of face predicted less confidence in mental health professionals. Thus, help-seeking attitudes seem generally related to Asian cultural values, but they seem particularly associated with emotional self-control and self-concealment once other demographic variables are taking into account. Implications for mental health professionals working with Asian American patients are discussed. |
