The Influence of Hmong Americans’ Acculturation and Cultural Identity on Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Mental Health Care and Services in Comparison to Traditional Health Beliefs and Practices

Abstract

The Hmong people have endured a long history of war-related trauma, and they have settled in different parts of the world. As a consequence, many Hmong people may have experienced various levels of psychological symptoms and have limited knowledge and resources for treatment and interventions. Issues of acculturation, cultural identity, traditional beliefs & practices, seeking traditional medical interventions, and religious beliefs may influence help-seeking behaviors from professional psychological services. Data, including demographic information, were gathered from two Hmong American churches located in southeast Michigan. The results showed that seeking professional services was correlated with both acculturation and traditional beliefs & practices. Acculturation and traditional beliefs & practices each contributed unique variance to help-seeking behaviors. This suggests that both low levels of acculturation and high levels of traditional beliefs & practices could result in people being less likely to seek mental health services. In this sample, Hmong Americans preferred God over traditional beliefs, such as Shamanism. The implications of these findings will be discussed.

Keywords

• hmong american mental health