Asian Americans and Mental Health
Every now and then, in my spare time, I like to browse the University of Washington news. It is kind of like how I continue to read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer online even though I haven’t lived in Seattle for a long time. I’m a nostalgic kind of guy, so that’s probably the reason why I do it. One day, maybe I’ll start reading the Boston Globe to find out about local news (which I think is important), but that day has not yet come.
I was browsing the news and came across this article entitled “Asians who immigrated to U.S. before age 25 have poorer mental health than older immigrants.”
The article claims that Asian immigrants who come to the United States before age 25 “attain higher levels of education and income than their older counterparts.” However, on average, they are more likely to be depressed or have anxiety. This leads me to make a couple of conclusions:
- Maybe having higher income and education has little to do with future happiness. (Though this study says that money can buy happiness. And so does this one.)
- The act of emigrating from one country to another as a child can have a detrimental effect on future mental health. (Maybe this explains my own personal insanity and instability… moving from Canada to the United States has to count for something!)
Of course, I’m no sociologist.
The aim of the article is to understand immigrants better so as to prevent future mental health problems, which are more likely if they immigrate as young children. I do wonder why Asian Americans were studied and not any other immigrants. Are they trying to study something else? Moreover, I wonder if their sample is biased. After all, most Asian Americans do not typically seek out mental health professionals. Does this suggest that the Asian Americans in their study who have mental health issues have serious mental health issues? Is there some other reason this study has to focus on Asian Americans? Also, what about native-born Asian Americans? We’ve got to deal with identity issues, which foreign-born Asian Americans don’t deal with. Well, I take that back, perhaps those immigrants who are under 25 do experience those identity issues. And that might explain the increased levels of stress and anxiety. Or perhaps, it is growing up in America’s rat race for financial security and material wealth that creates stress.
Of course, I’m no sociologist or psychologist.
Anyone else have an explanation?
Last 5 posts by eugene
- Recap: Ed Bok Lee at East Meets Words - August 18th, 2008
- Oh Eight, Oh Eight, Oh ap-pro-pri-Eight - August 8th, 2008
- East Meets Words featuring Edward Bok Lee - August 1st, 2008
- Be Like Water - July 21st, 2008
- Two Warriors Bring Peace and Love to East Meets Words - July 18th, 2008
Tags: News, social expectations.