Does acculturation and stigma affect among women's attitudes Toward and willingness to seek counseling services?
Author(s):
Lor, Maiteng
Format:
Thesis
Degree granted:
Psy.D.
Publisher:
Alliant International University, 2018.
Language:
English
Abstract:
Although the Hmong have resided in the United States since the 1970s, there has been limited research exploring the effect of acculturation and stigma on the Hmong community and their perspective of mental health services. There has been little research investigating Hmong women, in the United States, views of how their acculturation and stigma affect their attitudes toward and willingness to see a counselor. This study investigated the relationship between acculturation and the expression of attitudes toward professional psychological help and willingness to see a counselor. This study also investigated the interaction between Hmong women's level of acculturation and their perception of stigma on their attitude towards and willingness to seek counseling services. The 222 participants were provided with an informed consent. The Hmong women completed a Demographic Questionnaire Form (DQF), the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale (SL-ASIA), then the Stigma for Receiving Psychological Help (SSRPH), the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help-Short Form (SSRPH-SF), and finally, the Willingness to See a Counselor questionnaire (WSC). After the completion of the survey, participants were provided a list of national crisis resources and emailed the principal investigator if they wanted to be entered into a drawing for a gift card. The demographic data collected from Hmong women were analyzed for their frequencies and percentages of each category: age, years living in the United States, religion, and place of birth and their parent's place of birth. Almost 86% of the participants were between 18 and 35 years old, and 96.4% have lived in the United States for 20 or more years. Almost 53% of participants practice Shamanism. Data analysis of the research hypotheses indicates: there was not a statistically significant relationship between acculturation and attitudes toward counseling services. There was a week positive significant correlation between acculturation and willingness to seek services. Furthermore, the relationships between perception of stigma and acculturation, expression of attitudes and acculturation, and acculturation and willingness were not statistically significant. However, the relationship between expression of attitudes and perception of stigma was statistically significant. This study will provide a better understanding of Hmong women and their view of counseling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)