SACRIFICE AND SUCCESS: The Impact of Immigrant Identity on Asian American Mental Health

Abstract

This thesis aims to shed light on the specific mechanisms at play in how facets of culture, immigrant identity, and acculturation impact the mental health of Asian American young adults. Through our analysis of in-depth interviews with 15 Asian American students at Princeton, we suggest that Asian American young adults go through nuanced experiences in navigating the process of acculturation to US society and being raised by immigrants, which make them more susceptible to specific mental health situations. The interviews reveal that the interactions of such factors generate the perfect storm of being subjected to particular mental health needs, namely through cultural dissonance between Asian and Western values and strained family relationships. These results have important implications for inquiring into group patterns in mental health outcomes, as well as the need to consider the complex interaction that exists among the factors specific to the Asian American immigrant experience.