Park Michael, Park In Young, Choi Yoonsun, Henly Julia R
School of Social Work, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA.
School of Social Work, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA.
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2024 Oct 16. doi: 10.1007/s40615-024-02200-z.
Asian Americans, currently the most rapidly expanding racial group in the USA, are experiencing persistent mental health inequities. These inequities are particularly pronounced during adolescence, highlighting the critical need for dedicated focus on this demographic. Social support is a key shield against mental distress among these adolescents, yet little research has examined the collective impact of multiple sources of support over time, across developmental stages, and for different ethnic subgroups. Drawing on the integrated conceptual framework, this longitudinal study is the first to our knowledge to examine how support from families, religious organizations, and schools together predicts mental health over time across adolescents' developmental stages. We further examined how these relationships may be moderated by age groups, distinguishing between the early adolescence cohort and the middle adolescence cohort. Data were from the Midwest Longitudinal Study of Asian American Families (MLSAAF) project that survey-interviewed 378 Filipino American and 408 Korean American adolescents (M = 15 years). Findings reveal that family support consistently buffers against mental distress throughout adolescence for both groups. Religious support distinctly aids Filipino American early adolescents, while school support notably benefits early adolescents regardless of ethnicity. These findings emphasize the universal protective effects of social support, while also highlighting the nuanced ways that developmental stage and ethnicity may influence how different sources of support impact mental health. This underscores the need for developmentally and culturally sensitive mental health strategies for Asian American adolescents.
亚裔美国人是目前美国扩张速度最快的种族群体，他们一直面临心理健康方面的不平等问题。这些不平等在青少年时期尤为明显，凸显了专门关注这一人群的迫切需求。社会支持是这些青少年抵御心理困扰的关键屏障，但很少有研究考察多种支持来源在不同时间、不同发育阶段以及不同种族亚群体中的综合影响。基于综合概念框架，这项纵向研究据我们所知是首次考察家庭、宗教组织和学校的支持如何共同预测青少年在不同发育阶段的心理健康状况。我们还进一步考察了这些关系如何因年龄组而有所不同，区分了青春期早期队列和青春期中期队列。数据来自美籍亚裔家庭中西部纵向研究（MLSAAF）项目，该项目对378名菲律宾裔美国青少年和408名韩裔美国青少年（平均年龄 = 15岁）进行了调查访谈。研究结果表明，家庭支持在整个青春期对两组青少年都能持续缓冲心理困扰。宗教支持对菲律宾裔美国青春期早期青少年有显著帮助，而学校支持对所有种族的青春期早期青少年都有显著益处。这些发现强调了社会支持的普遍保护作用，同时也凸显了发育阶段和种族可能以细微方式影响不同支持来源对心理健康影响的情况。这凸显了为美籍亚裔青少年制定具有发展和文化敏感性的心理健康策略的必要性。
