Psychological help-seeking for Soviet-Jewish immigrants in Chicago.

This study sought to determine factors associated with attitudes held towards clinical psychology and psychological help-seeking by Soviet-Jewish immigrants. 94 foreign-born Soviet-Jews in the Chicago area age 18 and above were administered an extensive survey. The survey contained a demographics questionnaire and items from three scales: Vaux, Burda, and Stewart's (1986) Network Orientation Scale (NOS), Ben-Rafael, Gloeckner, Harris, Lyubansky, Jasper and Schoep's (2005) Soviet-Jewish Acculturation Measure-II (SAM-II), and Fischer and Turner's (1970) Attitudes Towards Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPPHS). Additionally, the socioeconomic status of the subjects was measured using Hollinghead's (1975) Four Factor Index of Social Status. Two main hypotheses were supported. Specifically, female gender was associated with more positive attitudes toward psychological help-seeking, and having a stronger orientation towards social-networking, or the sharing of problems and experiences with significant others, was also associated with more positive attitudes. Previous research has concluded that social-networking is a predominant value found in traditional Jewish culture. Hypothesized relationships between more positive help-seeking attitudes and age, acculturation level, length of U.S. residency, English-speaking, being married, and socioeconomic status were not found. However, significant correlations were discovered between several other variables of interest, supporting previous research with immigrants, and the utility of the measures used. Implications of findings with respect to multicultural clinical work is discussed. Further research is encouraged to further expand on and validate these findings.Thesis (Psy.D.)--Adler School of Professional Psychology, 2005.School code: 1143