Asian American Mental Health Help-Seeking: An Asian Value-Informed Health Belief Model

The present study examined a traditional health belief model (HBM) to test if Asian American emerging adults’ depression-specific perceptions of susceptibility, severity, barriers, and benefits were related to helpseeking intentions. We additionally evaluated an Asian value-informed HBM that incorporated Asian value adherence as a predictor of health beliefs and help-seeking intentions. The traditional HBM model provided better model fit relative to the Asian value-informed HBM, but it was noteworthy that both the traditional (44.1%) and Asian value-informed (44.7%) HBMs evidenced good fit and explained relatively comparable proportions of variance in relation to mental health help-seeking intentions. Participants who endorsed Asian values were less likely to believe that they are susceptible to developing a depressive disorder (susceptibility), view the consequences of depression as less severe (severity), and be less likely to see the benefits of seeking help (benefits). In addition, perceived benefits emerged as a direct predictor of mental health help-seeking intentions in the traditional HBM and as a link between Asian values and mental health help-seeking intentions in the Asian value-informed HBM. Results highlight the importance of cultural variables and mental health beliefs on mental health care intentions of Asian Americans.