Facilitating Factors in Help-Seeking Behavior Among Vietnamese-Americans in the United States

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

Department

Counseling

Date of Award

Summer 8-18-2025

Abstract

Extensive research has explored factors hindering help-seeking behaviors in Asian-Americans in general and Vietnamese-Americans specifically. However, little is known about factors promoting help-seeking in this population. This gap results in an inadequate understanding of culturally relevant strategies to improve the utilization of mental health care. Using constructivist grounded theory from a critical realist perspective, this study contributes to the literature by shifting the conversation from why Vietnamese Americans avoid mental health care to how they come to embrace it. It offers a framework for understanding help-seeking not only as access and utilization, but as identity formation—an on-going process of negotiating between separation and connectedness.

Advisor

Zaidy MohdZain

Subject Categories

Medicine and Health Sciences

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