Psychotic-Like Symptoms and Attitude toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help in Asian-American College Students

Studies have found that Asian Americans have more negative attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help compared to other ethnic groups. Cultural-related barriers, demographic, and personal factors are correlated with Asian American mental health and underutilization of treatment services. Additionally, Asian Americans have been shown to have higher scores on both disorganization and interpersonal schizotypal subscales of a commonly used schizotypal personality disorder measure compared to White Americans. 241 Asian-American college students participants include 70 males and 171 females from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The age range of participants was from 16 years old to 62 years old with a mean of 19.82. Asian-American students’ collective self-esteem was significantly correlated with the Social Anhedonia (r=-0.36, p=0.00) and Social Anxiety Subscales(r=-0.189, p=0.006) of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). First generation Asian-American students had significantly higher scores on the Magical Ideation subscale of the SPQ (F (2)=3.8, p=0.024) than second generation. However, the current study did not find Asian Americans’ attitude toward seeking professional psychological help to be significantly correlated with their generational status, multi-ethnic identity, or collective selfesteem. These results suggest that cultural factors may influence the manifestation of schizotypal personality symptoms. Clinicians need to be aware of such cultural implications in order to provide culturally appropriate mental health services for Asian ethnic minorities in the United States.Department of Psycholog