IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v88y2018icp497-503.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stressors and coping strategies of ethnic minority youth: Youth and mental health practitioners' perspectives

Author

Listed:
  • Kwan, Chi Kin
  • Baig, Raees Begum
  • Lo, Kai Chung

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the mental health needs of ethnic minority youth in Hong Kong and examine the importance of mental health practitioners' cultural competence in an Asian context. Within a qualitative paradigm, five mental health practitioners who provide mental health services to ethnic minority youth were interviewed. A total of 38 young people (16 Pakistanis and 22 Filipinos) from ethnic minority backgrounds were also placed into six small groups. Each individual attended a meeting at which he or she discussed stressors and coping methods. The participants were individually interviewed immediately after the group meeting, to help us gain an understanding of their experiences in a group setting in regard to discussing their stress. We show in this exploratory study how the stressors and coping methods of young people from ethnic minorities align with their cultures and ethnicities. They demonstrated a paradoxical attitude toward disclosing their personal needs and problems. Chinese mental health practitioners, however, tended to underestimate the needs of ethnic minority youth and believed that they were less willing than were other youth to disclose their personal problems. The findings of this study suggest that cultural distance between ethnic minority youth and mental health practitioners is a barrier to multicultural mental health services. Hence, cultural competence should be further promoted and integrated into daily clinical practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Kwan, Chi Kin & Baig, Raees Begum & Lo, Kai Chung, 2018. "Stressors and coping strategies of ethnic minority youth: Youth and mental health practitioners' perspectives," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 497-503.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:88:y:2018:i:c:p:497-503
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.04.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740917307557
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.04.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leavey, Gerard & Loewenthal, Kate & King, Michael, 2007. "Challenges to sanctuary: The clergy as a resource for mental health care in the community," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 548-559, August.
    2. Takeuchi, D.T. & Sue, S. & Yeh, M., 1995. "Return rates and outcomes from ethnicity-specific mental health programs in Los Angeles," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 85(5), pages 638-643.
    3. Jackson, Kelly F., 2009. "Building cultural competence: A systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of culturally sensitive interventions with ethnic minority youth," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(11), pages 1192-1198, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Finnigan, Charlotte & Brown, Jason & Al-Adeimi, Mohamed & Al-Abed, Rajaa, 2023. "Self-reported stressors experienced by migrant youth in Canada," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lin, Ching-Hsuan, 2014. "Evaluating Services for Kinship Care Families: A Systematic Review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 32-41.
    2. Balsa, Ana I. & McGuire, Thomas G., 2003. "Prejudice, clinical uncertainty and stereotyping as sources of health disparities," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 89-116, January.
    3. Callejas, Linda M. & Hernandez, Mario & Nesman, Teresa & Mowery, Debra, 2010. "Creating a front porch in systems of care: Improving access to behavioral health services for diverse children and families," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 32-35, February.
    4. Gert Scheerder & Chantal Van Audenhove & Ella Arensman & Barbara Bernik & Giancarlo Giupponi & Anne-Claire Horel & Margaret Maxwell & Merike Sisask & Andras Szekely & Airi Värnik & Ulrich Hegerl, 2011. "Community and Health Professionals’ Attitude Toward Depression: a Pilot Study in Nine Eaad Countries," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 57(4), pages 387-401, July.
    5. Balsa, Ana I. & McGuire, Thomas G., 2001. "Statistical discrimination in health care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 881-907, November.
    6. Sawrikar, Pooja & Katz, Ilan, 2017. "The treatment needs of victims/survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) from ethnic minority communities: A literature review and suggestions for practice," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 166-179.
    7. Glòria Durà -Vilà & Roland Littlewood & Gerard Leavey, 2013. "Depression and the medicalization of sadness: Conceptualization and recommended help-seeking," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 59(2), pages 165-175, March.
    8. Zeitlin, Wendy, 2014. "Factors impacting perceptions of organizational cultural competence in voluntary child welfare," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-8.
    9. Ryan E Lawrence & Kenneth A Rasinski & John D Yoon & Farr A Curlin, 2014. "Primary care physicians’ and psychiatrists’ willingness to refer to religious mental health providers," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 60(7), pages 627-636, November.
    10. Bjørknes, Ragnhild & Jakobsen, Reidar & Nærde, Ane, 2011. "Recruiting ethnic minority groups to evidence-based parent training. Who will come and how?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 351-357, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:88:y:2018:i:c:p:497-503. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.