Theses and dissertations

This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students. 

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Asian American Mental Health Help-Seeking: An Asian Value-Informed Health Belief Model

Description
Depression is a serious mental health concern that has increasing prevalence rates in the United States (Mojtabai et al., 2016). Asian Americans with depression tend to experience severe and persistent symptoms, but are significantly less likely to seek treatment than other racial/ethnic groups (Alegria et al., 2008; Lee et al.,…

Depression is a serious mental health concern that has increasing prevalence rates in the United States (Mojtabai et al., 2016). Asian Americans with depression tend to experience severe and persistent symptoms, but are significantly less likely to seek treatment than other racial/ethnic groups (Alegria et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2011). The current study utilized the Health Belief Model (HBM) to examine Asian American emerging adults’ depression-specific mental health beliefs and resulting intentions to seek mental health care. Furthermore, the current study tested the traditional HBM against an Asian value-informed HBM via structural equation modeling among a sample of 385 Asian American emerging adults (Mage = 21.81, SDage = 2.88). Primary study results indicated good model fit for both the traditional and Asian-value informed HBMs. Specifically, in the Asian-value informed HBM, perceived benefits of professional mental health care mediated the association between Asian value adherence and likelihood of mental health help-seeking. Post hoc analyses provided support for the Asian value-informed HBM over the traditional HBM. These results suggest that Asian cultural values influence mental health beliefs and, in turn, the likelihood of mental health help-seeking behaviors among Asian Americans. The results of the current study have important implications for practice as well as future research in highlighting the impact of cultural variables on mental health beliefs and behaviors among Asian American emerging adults.
ContributorsLam, Christina K. (Author) / Tran, Giac-Thao (Thesis advisor) / Bludworth, James (Committee member) / Yoo, Hyung (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
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Ethnic Discrimination, Socioeconomic Status, and Health in India

Description

Significant health inequalities exist between different castes and ethnic communities in India, and identifying the roots of these inequalities is of interest to public health research and policy. Research on caste-based health inequalities in India has historically focused on general, government-defined categories, such as “Scheduled Castes,” “Scheduled Tribes,” and “Other…

Significant health inequalities exist between different castes and ethnic communities in India, and identifying the roots of these inequalities is of interest to public health research and policy. Research on caste-based health inequalities in India has historically focused on general, government-defined categories, such as “Scheduled Castes,” “Scheduled Tribes,” and “Other Backward Classes.” This method obscures the diversity of experiences, indicators of well-being, and health outcomes between castes, tribes, and other communities in the “scheduled” category. This study analyzes data on 699,686 women from 4,260 castes, tribes and communities in the 2015-2016 Demographic and Health Survey of India to: (1) examine the diversity within and overlap between general, government-defined community categories in both wealth, infant mortality, and education, and (2) analyze how infant mortality is related to community category membership and socioeconomic status (measured using highest level of education and household wealth). While there are significant differences between general, government-defined community categories (e.g., scheduled caste, backward class) in both wealth and infant mortality, the vast majority of variation between communities occurs within these categories. Moreover, when other socioeconomic factors like wealth and education are taken into account, the difference between general, government-defined categories reduces or disappears. These findings suggest that focusing on measures of education and wealth at the household level, rather than general caste categories, may more accurately target those individuals and households most at risk for poor health outcomes. Further research is needed to explain the mechanisms by which discrimination affects health in these populations, and to identify sources of resilience, which may inform more effective policies.
ContributorsClauss, Colleen (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis director) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2022-05