Depression Among Asian Americans: A Literature Review

Canada prides itself on being a multicultural country due to its large population of immigrants. Immigrants contribute greatly to Canada’s economy, culture and general society. Immigrants often come to Canada in search of a better life but they can encounter stressors that can have a large impact on their mental health. In this essay I will explore some factors that lead to mental health issues among the immigrant population, what prevents immigrants from accessing help and measures that could and should be taken to address this issue.

This paper will attempt to display the cultural differences in the expression and description of depression symptoms within the Asian American and European American cultures. It is theorized that there are distinct differences between these two cultures as their worldviews are decidedly different. In the Asian American culture the world is seen through a collectivist lens, meaning that they take into consideration the views and opinions of not only their family but their community as well. Mental illness in this particular worldview is not seen as something that is shameful to the individual but their family and community. Hence, the implications for having a mental illness in this culture are greater than they would

Chinese immigrants experience much more hardship compared with what they contribute to the society. It seems that every immigrant needs to suffer a lot of bias and hardship in America because of cultural difference. Culture shock leads to many misunderstandings and causes conflicts. That is easy to understand. However, Chinese immigrants are treated unfairly because more complex reasons. These reasons include historical problems, Chinese-American cultural differences and competitive level (include education level and English level also the specialize skills). For Chinese immigrants, they contribute a lot of America society both in the technology and economy according to the public affairs television; however, many Chinese-Americans think they are “living in the jail” with no civil rights.(Public Affairs Television, Between Two Worlds) signal phrase

The ability to see the world as others do occurs only once. This is before the instance of any stimuli, any thought or experience; before the first breath. Culture is a foundation of beliefs and morals that are specific to one’s ethnicity. This is the distinct quality that everyone has based on their abstract views and varying backgrounds. The foundation of how people identify themselves and others is shaped by their experiences and interactions throughout life. Family and social norms are the two most prominent factors of how perception is influenced by culture.

Throughout the nation and our world people are suffering from this disease. Depression effects people of both genders, all ages, and any background. The history of mental illness, specifically depression were extremely helpful in today’s treatment and diagnosis. We know that all individuals are different and because of this, we can assume that each case of mental illness, more specifically depression, is unique in its own way as well. One treatment that is very effective for one person may not be equally as effective in a similar case simply because of the differences in patients. History, types of depression, symptoms, and treatments are all equally important in finding ways to help one who is suffering from depression.

Depression is not acknowledged as a mental illness but a temporary sense of despair. The idea that neural activity and lack of serotonin production can be a propel for depression,

The Racial/Cultural Identity Development Model by Sue & Sue (2012), is an active example to understand clients’ attitudes and behaviors toward themselves and their culture as well as the culture of others. According to West-Olatunji, Frazier, Guy, Smith, Clay & Breaux (2007), “This model poses the following questions (Sue & Sue, 2003): (a) With whom do you identify and why? (b) What culturally diverse attitudes and beliefs do you accept or reject and why? (c) What dominant cultural attitudes and beliefs do you accept or reject and why? and (d) How do your current attitudes and beliefs affect your interaction with other culturally diverse clients and people of the dominant culture? Most important, this model allows for investigation of clients ' level of conformity and idealized identification with the dominant culture as well as their rejection of their own culture.”

According to research, African Americans tend to have more shameful attitudes towards individuals with mental illness compared to European Americans (Ward et al, 2009; Poussaint & Alexander, 2000). Within African American culture, admitting one has mental illness is sometimes viewed as a personal weakness or lack of faith (Ward et al 2009; Boyd-Franklin, 2003). This perceived stigma often deters African Americans from discussing their mental health concerns with family and professionals. For Black women in particular, the issue of stereotype has been an overlapping factor affecting the use of services for mental illness. Sexual objectification can be linked to mental health problems among African American women. Objectification theory hypothesizes

Depression is considered to be one of the more prevalent mental illnesses in Western society. Although it can be interpreted as deep sadness, it can also lead to health deficits later on in a person’s life, depending on how long it lasts. The film ‘The Split Horn’, filmed by Taggart Siegel and Jim McSilver, (PBS, 2015) touches on the impact that depression has on a specific group of people called the Hmong. However, the Hmong view of depression contrasts from those who practice Western culture, and some views of one culture contradicts the other. There are a few consequences that can come out of this, and as a result, one can begin to understand the difference between cultures, since depression is conceptualized

The short essay “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan is an autobiographical short essay describing the experience of Amy, a fourteen-year-old American-Chinese girl, at an embarrassing dinner party her family hosted. One of the people invited was her crush, an American pastor’s son, and, because of the cultural difference, he did not understand the table manners or the food choices of the Chinese diners. Through this embarrassing experience- showing how different her culture and, by extension, she was to her crush- she learned to accept her native Chinese culture, even if she did want to assimilate into the new, American culture.

The United States of America is a capitalist country that is widely known for equal opportunity, and the idea of freedom. Lady Liberty greets others as they arrive at Ellis Island, in hopes of becoming a citizen in this praised country. In reality, if these people become citizens the likelihood of them advancing to the same levels of success as white people in America is very small. However, there are arguments that state Asian Americans are the model minority, with good educations, well-paying jobs, and better values than those of other Americans (“The Rise). A model minority is a racial or ethnic minority who is thought to have a higher socioeconomic status than the rest of the general

The Fresno Hmong community is an ethnic and cultural community. In Fresno, Hmong American is one of the largest ethnic groups. The Hmong are refugees. The United States recruited the Hmong to fight in the secret war against the Pathet Lao. After the United States withdrew from the war, thousands of Hmong were killed by the Pathet Lao or were forced to abandon their homes, lands, and livestock in Laos and fled to the refugee camps in Thailand. This resulted in the immigration of the Hmong settling in the United in the 1970’s. Hmong families have been able to adapt themselves to new changes and new environments. Through perseverance, they were able to survive when they were forced to abandon their villages in Laos to settle down in the mountains of Laos, escape to Thailand by crossing over the Mekong River, and when they immigrated to the United States in fear of persecution.

The literature review highlighted that most of the research was done in three provinces and three major cities. It identified that depression was most studied. The depression rate was low amongst economic immigrants but high for refugees. The mental health state of the various immigrants groups were wide-ranging. However, the groups were lumped together regardless of their varying culture backgrounds. The conclusion was that more specific research needs to done to address the diverse immigrant populations because the current is too limited to

In the Asian American culture, many cultural beliefs and values are upheld pertaining to mental illness and health. Asian Americans, as an ethnic group, are fast growing than any other in the United States at this time (Lee, Martins, & Lee, 2015). Unfortunately, many Asian Americans perceive a mental illness diagnosis as shameful. As a result, many who suffer from mental illness in this community are often isolated and do not receive mental health care services (Cheon & Chiao, 2012). As there are many different subgroups within Asian American culture, stigma, use of mental health services, access to care, and compliance rates tend to vary. For instance, Chinese Americans view mental

By being forced to comply with the cultural norm of the country you are being denied of the opportunity to explore your own culture. Not being allowed such a vital part of your identity might lead to a lack of self-understanding. It is extremely important to be able to explore one’s culture, to know what you subscribe to and what you do not. That way you figure out whether you identify with the culture or not, thus creating your own sense of cultural identity. Identity development is highly important, and being stripped of it creates an abundant number of problems. Depression being one of the largely common ones. This is also associated once more with discrimination and stereotypes. In a study conducted by the department of Psychology of the New York University on how culture affects immigrant population, it could be seen how identifying with one's own ethnic group relates to the state of their mental