Indian American Attitudes Towards Seeking Mental Health Care

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the attitudes of mental health care of Indian Americans. Indian Americans make up 4.7 million of the United States population and the numbers have been growing exponentially ever since. The cultures of India and the United States are very different and the way the view mental health is very different as well. Although there has been a lot of growth in the field of psychology in both countries, the United States has many more resources in respect to mental health care than India does. This study looks at aspects of immigration, acculturation, individual and collectivism, model minority stress, and stigma and the effects they may have towards the attitudes towards mental health care. The measures used in this study are the Mental Help Seeking Attitude Scale, the Social, Attitudinal, Familial, and Environmental Stress scale, and the reduced version of the Individualism and Collectivism Scale.