Depression and stress as viewed by Asian American youth and parents

Background: Depression and stress are common problems among youth linked to future behavior and health problems. Understanding how Asian American parents perceive their child’s stress is important for understanding family coping mechanisms and developing mental health interventions for this growing US population.

Methods: Asian American youth (n=30) attending a church sponsored youth camp and their parents (n=21) were recruited to complete an assessment of health risk behaviors, mental health and coping skills.  Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed.   

Results: Primarily Korean (76.7%), Chinese (13.3%) and Vietnamese (6.7%) families participated.  About half of the youth (46.7%) and all of the parents were born outside of the US. Youth were more acculturated than parents (e.g. more attended English speaking social gatherings). Reported tobacco, alcohol and marijuana use was low for all participants (less than 15%). Seven youth reported being depressed and only 2 parents reported that they thought their child was depressed.  Nine youth and parents reported that the youth was feeling stressed and comments linked this primarily to grades.

Conclusions: Recognizing youth depression may be difficult for parents facing issues of living in a new country in economically hard times. Future research will need to recruit all parents or give up anonymous sampling if direct percentage comparisons are desired.  The 70% of parents choosing to participate may not be representative of all parents of the youth in the study.  This study included sensitive questions, prioritizing anonymous consent to increase candid answers.