Child and Youth Care Forum
Volume 37, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 139-152

Immigrant status, mental health need, and mental health service utilization among high-risk Hispanic and Asian Pacific Islander youth (Article)

Gudiño O.G. , Lau A.S. , Hough R.L.
  • a Department of Psychology, 1285 Franz Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, United States
  • b Department of Psychology, 1285 Franz Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, United States
  • c Departments of Psychiatry and Family and Community Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, United States

Abstract

This study examined youth mental health service (MHS) use as a function of family immigrant status and type of mental health need (internalizing vs. externalizing). A sample of Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander families (youth ages 11-18; N = 457) involved with public sectors of care provided reports of youth mental health need during an initial interview and MHS use was examined prospectively over 2 years. While externalizing need predicted specialty and school-based MHS use in the overall sample, family immigrant status moderated the association between youth need and specialty MHS use such that immigrant youth were more likely to receive services for externalizing need and less likely to receive services for internalizing need relative to non-immigrant youth. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Author Keywords

mental health services Immigrant Externalizing Internalizing Unmet need

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-44649121361&doi=10.1007%2fs10566-008-9056-4&partnerID=40&md5=c954132f9b18edf71bfb7150e85ef87c
DOI: 10.1007/s10566-008-9056-4
ISSN: 10531890
Cited by: 22
Original Language: English