For students of Asian-American descent, the duality of being part of two conflicting cultures can be a troubling experience because of family pressures and society.<\/p>\n
Justin Ko, a junior child development major, expressed his parents’ disapproval of his pursuit into becoming an elementary school teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents don’t like the fact that I want to teach,\u201d Ko said. \u201cIn the Korean culture, elementary school teaching is viewed to be a \u2018feminine’ job and my parents want me to do a more \u2018masculine’ career.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the April 2 mass shooting at Oikos University in Oakland to the 2007 tragedy at Virginia Tech, the issues of mental health care in Asian-Americans are raising concerns.<\/p>\n
In a 2011 report from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a grassroots mental health advocacy organization, Asian-Americans have higher rates of depression, suicide and anxiety problems because of a lack of bicultural\/bilingual providers as well as the stigma of having to seek help for mental distress.<\/p>\n
In particular, Asian-American youth tend to have higher rates of depressive symptoms in contrast to their peers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first generation of Asians in America seems to have no faith in the U.S. health system,\u201d Ko said. \u201cThey try to keep their problems internalized.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soo Choi, a professor of Asian-American studies, noted that the Asian-American students who take his classes seem to have issues with assimilating into American culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 20 years that I’ve taught the class, I tell students to have a sense of ownership in America,\u201d Choi said.<\/p>\n
Choi added that in the history of Asians in America, the problems they faced were derived from the struggles of a society that didn’t include them until today.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsians, like any other immigrant group, have to become more engaged in their society and gain respect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Undeclared sophomore Melissa Aguas took an Asian-American studies class and noted the behavior of her Asian-American peers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey seem to keep to themselves and don’t like to talk about their problems,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen it comes to stress they like to keep it personal and if they don’t do well in school or relationships, they blame themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, the stereotype of Asians as being \u201csmart\u201d or the \u201cmodel minority\u201d can add pressure to Asian-American students to succeed, but Aguas said it all depends on the individual.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome students may go against the stereotype, others don’t, but it all depends on the person’s personality,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ko added that even the addition of \u201cpositive\u201d stereotypes could potentially cause mental harm upon a person.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if the stereotype is positive, the concept of stereotyping is negative,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In spite of the struggles Asian-American students face in today’s society, Choi said they should not feel ashamed of where they come from.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople can enjoy being in two cultures,\u201d he said. \u201cThey shouldn’t feel ashamed of their heritage and it shouldn’t bother them mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Choi also believes that with a sense of independence and self-assurance, Asian-Americans can overcome their tribulations in American society.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the struggles, they (Asian-Americans) need to gain full ownership or else their identity won’t be recognized.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asian-American girls and women ages 15 to 24 have the highest suicide rates out of all racial\/ethnic groups.<\/strong><\/p>\n Asian-American college students have higher levels of depressive symptoms than white students.<\/p>\n In Asian culture, mental health problems are stigmatized to the point that they’re expressed as more acceptable physical aches and pain.<\/p>\n Southeast Asians have a higher risk for post-traumatic stress disorder than East Asians.<\/p>\n Some of the root causes for mental distress in Asian-American youth include conflicting family values, culture and education.<\/p>\n SOURCE: Data from National Alliance on Mental Illness<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For students of Asian-American descent, the duality of being part of two conflicting cultures can be a troubling experience because<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"For students of Asian-American descent, the duality of being part of two conflicting cultures can be a troubling experience because","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["News"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":144,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":4,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=1"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"News<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}