Cultural identity as a mediating factor in help-seeking attitutes among Asian and Caucasian students

• Main Author: Barone, Crispian Louis
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Help-seeking behavior; College students; Attitudes; Ethnicity
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/15169

The purpose of this study was to explore how level of cultural identity was related to help-seeking attitudes among Asian students and to compare between Asian and Caucasian students. A total of 367 undergraduate university students participated in this study, of whom 184 (127 female and 57 male) were Asians and 183 (137 female, 44 male and 2 unspecified gender) were Caucasians. A weak positive correlation was found between Asian cultural identity and positive help-seeking attitudes (r = .158, p = .034, n = 181) (2-tailed); no significant correlation existed between cultural identity and negative help-seeking attitudes (r = .077, p = .305, n = 178) (2-tailed); no significant differences were found among: (a) high Caucasian cultural identity, (b) low Caucasian cultural identity Asian groups, and (c) Caucasian group for both positive help-seeking attitudes (F(2, 186) - .612), p = .544). Mixed results were found indicating that there was no easily identifiable trend between cultural identity and positive and negative help-seeking attitudes. Theoretical, clinical, and research implications are discussed.