Abstract
Encounters with Western psychiatric treatment and acculturation may influence causal beliefs of psychiatric illness endorsed by Chinese immigrant relatives, thus affecting help seeking. We examined causal beliefs held by 46 Chinese immigrant relatives and found that greater acculturation was associated with an increased number of causal beliefs. Further, as Western psychiatric treatment and acculturation increased, causal models expanded to incorporate biological/physical causes. However, frequency of Chinese immigrant relatives’ endorsing spiritual beliefs did not appear to change with acculturation. Clinicians might thus account for spiritual beliefs in treatment even after acculturation increases and biological causal models proliferate.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 19-39 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2015 |
Keywords
- Acculturation
- Causal beliefs
- Chinese
- Culture
- Family
- Immigrant
- Schizophrenia
- Treatment contact
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science)
- Demography
- Geography, Planning and Development