Keywords

Asian American, mental health, international student, counseling center, psychotherapy outcome, college counseling, student adjustment

Abstract

Limited psychological research has disaggregated the experiences of Asian American (AA) from international Asian (IA) college students seeking psychotherapy. When combined, important differences between these groups are overlooked. We examined archival data collected from AA, IA, and European American (EA) students at a large, Western, university counseling center. Results indicated no significant differences between groups related to maximum number of psychotherapy sessions attended or likelihood of treatment discontinuance. However, we found significant differences between these groups on a number of items related to presenting concerns and to severity of presenting distress, with IA students presenting with the most distress, followed by AA, and finally EA. We also found significant differences between groups in treatment improvement, with EA students experiencing most improvement, followed by AA, and IA students. Future research should continue to investigate how specific concerns and experiences of AA and IA students are similar and different.

Original Publication Citation

Stokes, H., Griner, D., Smith, T. B., Beecher, M. E., Allen, K., Cox, J., Hobbs, K., & Kirtley, N. (2021). Psychotherapy utilization and presenting concerns among international Asian and Asian American students in a university counseling center. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 32, 118-135. https://doi.org/10.1080/87568225.2019.1650681

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2021

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Language

English

College

David O. McKay School of Education

Department

Counseling Psychology and Special Education

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

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