Religious Support Mediates the Racial Microaggressions-Mental Health Relation Among Christian Ethnic Minority Students

The author examined the mediating role of perceived support from religious sources (i.e., religious support; Fiala, Bjorck, & Gorsuch, 2002) in the inverse relation between racial microaggressions and well-being in a sample of Christian ethnic minority students. A modified version of the support deterioration model (Barrera, 1986) was used as the conceptual framework. It was hypothesized that the nature of the indirect effect would be (a) an inverse relation between racial microaggressions and religious support, and (b) a positive relation between religious support and well-being. Religious commitment was entered as a covariate. African American, Asian American, and Hispanic college students (N = 144) completed an online survey. The study design was cross-sectional. A significant indirect effect of racial microaggressions on psychological well-being through congregational support was found, with findings pointing to the empirical utility of religious support in explaining the racial microaggressions-mental health link among ethnic minority samples

Teaching Korean Cultural Constructs to American Students: Examples from a South Korea Study Abroad Course

The blend of traditional and contemporary culture in South Korea offers study abroad students a valuable setting to learn about psychological constructs. Despite South Korea’s potential as a study abroad destination, the body of literature on teaching psychology abroad in the country remains undeveloped. An immersion experience can be a valuable way to teach study abroad students about culture-specific constructs. The present article highlights how I attempted to teach three culture-specific constructs (han, jeong, and chemyon) during a short-term, intensive study abroad experience in South Korea, utilizing various excursions and activities. Examples of learning activities discussed in this article are The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum to learn about han, Baby Box to facilitate discussion of chemyon, and dining out experience to learn about jeong. As appropriate, I integrate student written assignments and results from a survey to illustrate how the learning of the culture-specific constructs took place

Strategies for Teaching White Students About Racism During a Study Abroad Course

It is challenging to teach about racism well. One of the reasons for this difficulty is that the topic of racism is sometimes met with resistance from students. Therefore, it is important for psychology instructors to continue to identify and practice effective ways to teach about racism. I contend that the study abroad experience is a valuable opportunity for this type of teaching. Drawing from my experience as a Korean American educator teaching Cross-Cultural Psychology to American students studying abroad in South Korea, I provide some concrete examples of pedagogical tools and approaches that I have found helpful in deepening White students’ understanding of racism. My hope is that instructors who lead study abroad programs will be inspired to try some of these ideas and also implement new ones that will help White students to understand racism

Internalized Model Minority Myth, Asian Values, and Help-Seeking Attitudes among Asian American Students

The present study examined cultural factors underlying help-seeking attitudes of Asian American college students (N = 106). Specifically, we explored internalized model minority myth as a predictor of help-seeking attitudes and tested an intrapersonal-interpersonal framework of Asian values as a mechanism by which the two are related. Results indicated that internalized model minority myth significantly predicted unfavorable help-seeking attitudes, and emotional self-control mediated this relationship. Interpersonal values and humility were nonsignificant mediators, contrary to our hypotheses. The findings suggest that the investigation of internalized model minority myth in help-seeking research is a worthwhile endeavor, and they also highlight emotional self-control as an important explanatory variable in help-seeking attitudes of Asian American college students

Stigma, Loss of Face, and Help-Seeking Attitudes Among South Korean College Students

This study investigated empirical associations between others stigma (predictor), self-stigma (mediator), loss of face concerns (moderator), and professional help-seeking attitudes (outcome) among South Korean college students (N = 485). We also explored the dimensionality of close others and public stigmas using bifactor analysis and ancillary measures. Participants were recruited from several universities in South Korea. They completed an online survey containing demographic questions and study measures. Bifactor analysis results indicated that close others and public stigmas may be better treated as a unidimensional measure (i.e., others stigma). Mediation and moderated mediation analyses indicated that others stigma predicted self-stigma, which in turn predicted help-seeking attitudes. Furthermore, this mediation model was moderated by loss of face. The index of moderated mediation indicated that as the value of loss of face increased, the negative indirect effect of others stigma on help-seeking attitudes through self-stigma became weaker. Implications for research and practice are discussed

Etiology Beliefs Moderate the Influence of Emotional Self-Control on Willingness to See a Counselor through Help-Seeking Attitudes among Asian American Students

To identify correlates of Asian American professional help-seeking, we tested a mediation model describing Asian American help-seeking (Asian value of emotional self-control → help-seeking attitudes → willingness to see a counselor; Hypothesis 1) in a sample of Asian American college students from the Pacific Northwest region of the United States (N = 232). We also examined biological and spiritual etiology beliefs as moderators of the mediation model (Hypotheses 2a & 2b). Our findings indicated that help-seeking attitudes significantly mediated the relation between emotional self-control and willingness to see a counselor, consistent with our mediation hypothesis. Furthermore, biological and spiritual etiology beliefs moderated this mediation model, providing partial support for our moderation hypotheses. Our findings suggest that researchers can contribute to the Asian American literature by investigating conditions in which established Asian American help-seeking models may or may not hold. In addition, the findings suggest additional nuanced ways for counselors to reach out to Asian American students to increase their mental health service utilization

Testing a Multiple Mediation Model of Asian American College Students’ Willingness to See a Counselor

Adapting the theory of reasoned action (TRA), the present study examined help-seeking beliefs, attitudes, and intent among Asian American college students (N = 110). A multiple mediation model was tested to see if the relation between Asian values and willingness to see a counselor was mediated by attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help and subjective norm. A bootstrapping procedure was used to test the multiple mediation model. Results indicated that subjective norm was the sole significant mediator of the effect of Asian values on willingness to see a counselor. The findings highlight the importance of social influences on help-seeking intent among Asian American college students

Religious coping moderates the relation between racism and psychological well-being among Christian Asian American college students.

We examined the moderating role of positive and negative religious coping in the relation between racism and psychological well-being in a sample of Catholic and Protestant Asian American college students (N = 107). Based on prior theorizing on the two types of religious coping, combined with some limited empirical evidence, we predicted that positive religious coping would have a buffering effect (Hypothesis 1) on the racism-mental health relation and that negative religious coping would have an exacerbating one (Hypothesis 2). Participants completed an online survey containing measures corresponding to the study variables. Results indicated that the interaction between positive religious coping and racism was nonsignificant (β = .135; p = .280), so Hypothesis 1 was not supported. For Hypothesis 2, the negative religious coping and racism interaction term was statistically significant (β = .240; p = .014), but the moderating effect was in an unexpected direction, so that negative religious coping actually protected against the deleterious impact of racism on mental health. Our findings suggest that the theorized deleterious influence of negative religious coping may need to be reconsidered in an Asian American setting. The findings have the potential to inform practitioners who work with Asian American college students to better cope with the detrimental consequences of racism