Abstract
The present study examined subgroups of Asian Indians in the USA based on endorsed mental health symptoms and their relations with mental health treatment parameters (treatment history, internal/institutional barriers to mental health treatment seeking, and treatment preferences [therapist directiveness, emotional intensity, past orientation, and support]). The sample included 296 Asian Indians (60.10% females; Mage = 34.12) recruited from the community. Latent profile analyses indicated a best-fitting three-class solution: Low Mental Health Symptom Severity (Class 1), High Mental Health Severity: Predominantly Internalizing Symptoms (Class 2), and High Mental Health Severity: Predominantly High-Risk Symptoms (Class 3). Multinomial logistic regressions indicated that (1) internal barriers to mental health treatment seeking significantly associated with being in Class 2 vs. 1 and 3; (2) preferences for therapist directiveness and for past orientation significantly associated with being in Class 3 vs. 1; and (3) institutional barriers to mental health treatment seeking and preference for past orientation significantly associated with being in Class 3 vs. 2. Our findings highlight heterogeneity in mental health symptom patterns, disparities in mental health treatment utilization, internal/institutional barriers to seeking mental health treatment among individuals reporting more mental health symptom severity, and cultural-specific treatment preferences. Culturally adapted mental health treatments need to be tailored to the heterogeneous subgroups of Asian Indians based on their mental health symptom patterns.
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Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from A.A.C upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Rachita Sharma, Dr. Megan Dolan, Dr. Stephanie Caldas, Ms. Fallon Keegan, Ms. Shelby Thornton, Ms. Christina Cantu, Ms. Seanne Ohara, and Mr. Bhargav Muppaneni for aiding participant recruitment. We thank Dr. Rachita Sharma for their help in obtaining funding for this project.
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This work was supported by funding from the University of North Texas India Venture Fund (Dr. Ateka A. Contractor and Dr. Rachita Sharma). The funding agency had no role in the study design, the data collection, analysis or interpretation, writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.
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Jin, L., Compton, S.E., Sameen, De. et al. Mental Health Symptom Profiles and Treatment Parameters Among Asian Indians: Latent Profile Analyses. Int J Ment Health Addiction (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-023-01040-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-023-01040-y