Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Qian Li

Date

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

James Whelan

Committee Member

Andy Meyers

Committee Member

Jia Wei Zhang

Committee Member

Xu Jiang

Abstract

Asian Americans have been unlikely to seek mental health services despite their needs for appropriate treatment, particularly when experiencing significant gambling or Internet gaming problems. Stigma is often considered to be a barrier to seeking help. To understand how stigma impacts Asian Americans’ willingness to seek mental health services, the present study used an online survey to investigate the public stigma associated with addictive behaviors and help-seeking stigma among Asian Americans. Participants (N = 431) who self-identified as Asian American, reside in the US and reported themselves as proficient in English were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Using an experimental between-groups vignette study design, it was found that the individual with a behavioral addiction received more stigma compared to the individual who experienced a financial crisis. In addition, participants were more likely to seek help if they experienced addictive behavioral problems rather than financial problems. Lastly, this study did not reveal a significant relation between public stigma attached to addictive behaviors and Asian Americans’ willingness to seek help, but it found that participants’ willingness to seek help was positively associated with public stigma of help seeking (β = .23) and negatively associated with self-stigma attached to help-seeking (β = -.09). Based on these findings, recommendations are provided to inform community outreach to reduce stigma and promote mental health service utilization among Asian Americans.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest.

Notes

Embargoed until 6/23/2024

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