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Child Mental Health Services and Psychotherapy Attitudes Among Asian Indian Parents: An Exploratory Study

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Abstract

This exploratory study examined how parents’ past personal use of psychotherapy related to perceived stigma and attitudes on intentions to use child mental health services among Asian Indian parents living in the United States. Participants were 89 Asian Indian parents recruited from 2009 to 2010 through a convenience sample. Descriptive analyses showed that Asian Indian parents reported similar attitudes as their American counterparts, but more stigma than European American and Latino parents. Using t-tests, results indicated that Asian Indian parents who previously used psychotherapy reported more positive attitudes than parents with no history of service use. Additionally, findings indicated that mothers reported more openness to seeking services than fathers. Finally, psychotherapy attitudes significantly predicted parents’ intentions to seek services for their child in the future. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank those who helped me with the data collection process including the family members and Indian cultural organizations in the Greater Houston Texas area who so graciously offered their time and commitment to this research project.

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Author notes

  1. Erlanger A. Turner

    Present address: Department of Social Sciences, University of Houston – Downtown, 1 Main Street, Suite N-1009, Houston, TX, 77002-1001, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Montgomery Township School District, Skillman, NJ, USA

    Sarita Mohan

  2. Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Erlanger A. Turner

  3. Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Sarita Mohan

Authors
  1. Erlanger A. Turner
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  2. Sarita Mohan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erlanger A. Turner.

Additional information

This data was collected through collaboration with the author Sarita Mohan as partial requirement for a Doctor of Philosophy degree in school psychology through the Department of Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. The dissertation was titled “Acculturation and Its Effects on Help-Seeking Attitudes Among Asian Indians”. Portions of the data from the enclosed paper have previously been presented at the 2011 American Psychological Association annual convention in Washington, DC.

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Turner, E.A., Mohan, S. Child Mental Health Services and Psychotherapy Attitudes Among Asian Indian Parents: An Exploratory Study. Community Ment Health J 52, 989–997 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-015-9976-z

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