An Exploratory Study of School Counselors' Experiences with and Perceptions of Asian-American Students

Of the 720,000 new immigrants who came to the United States in 1995, 268,000 originated from Asia and the Pacific Islands. From 1980 to 1990, the Asian-American population doubled, and it will double again between 1990 and 2020. In addition, the number of school-age Asian-Americans increased from 212,900 in 1980 to almost 1.3 million in 1990 (Lee, 1998). To date, "Asian-American" as a racial category represents 29 distinct ethnic groups (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1993). Moreover, there is considerable social and economic variation between recent Asian immigrants in comparison to Asian-American communities that have been in the United States for generations (Lee, 1998). These demographic shifts have contributed to a significant influx of Asian-American students in many of the nation's public school systems, particularly on the East and West Coasts (Lee, 1998). The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) position statement on Cross-Cultural and Multicultural Counseling (ASCA, 1999), included the statement that "School counselors take action to ensure students of culturally diverse backgrounds have access to appropriate services and opportunities promoting the individual's maximum development." Hence, this research seeks to help school counselors understand the counseling needs of Asian-American students. Asian-American students are an important group to investigate for a number of reasons. In particular, although Asian-American students are characterized as the "Model Minority" (Lee, 1997, p. 442), they do have serious psychological, social, and developmental concerns that are often ignored by professionals (Morrissey, 1997; Uba, 1994). The Model Minority myth contributes to the perception that Asian-Americans perform well academically and emotionally and that they do not need help from a counselor. In contrast, numerous Asian-American students are vulnerable to many of the problems associated with adjusting to a new culture (Sodowsky & Lai, 1997). Asian-American students may experience culture shock from trying to negotiate competing cultural value systems (Henderson, Millhouse, & Ling, 1994). Cultural differences may also contribute to depression (Flaskerud & Nguyen, 1988; Nicassio, Solomon, Guest, & McMullough, 1986), social isolation (Lin, 1986), anxiety (Kinzie, 1989; Lin, 1986), low self-concept (Timberlake & Cook, 1984), relationship problems (Sodowsky & Lai, 1997), and academic and career concerns (Sodowsky & Lai, 1997). However, since many Asian-- Americans mask their psychological problems with physical manifestations or somatization (Moore & Boehnlein, 1991; Nicassio, 1985), many problems may be unnoticed by school counselors. In addition, research has consistently shown that Asian-Americans severely underutilize mental health and counseling services (Atkinson, Lowe, & Matthews, 1995; Leong & Tracey, 1986; Sue, Fujino, Hu, Takeuchi, & Zane, 1991). Although underuse could indicate a lack of need for these services among Asian-Americans, studies have demonstrated prevalence of psychological problems among Asian-American samples (e.g., Abe & Zane, 1990; Buchwald, Mansen, Dingas, Keane, & Kinzie, 1993; Loo, Tong, & True, 1989; Mollica, Wyshak, & Lavelle, 1987). In fact, research indicates that Asian-Americans are at increased risk for cultural adjustment problems in comparison to other ethnic minority populations (Leong, 1986). Several factors have been identified as possible reasons for the underutilization of mental health services by Asian-Americans including: (a) lack of familiarity with, or misconceptions about, counseling; (b) cultural stigma and shame over mental health problems; (c) availability of alternative resources to traditional counseling; and (d) linguistic barriers (Uba, 1994). Moreover, a dearth of culturally sensitive personnel has been observed as a factor in underutilization (Atkinson & Matsushita, 1991; Atkinson, Poston, Furlong, & Mercado, 1989; Uba, 1994). …