Date of Award

12-24-2025

Date Published

January 2026

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Advisor(s)

Aesoon Park

Keywords

Asian American;Cultural Mistrust;Help-seeking;Microaggressions;Model Minority;Racism

Subject Categories

Clinical Psychology | Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Objective: Cultural mistrust can serve as an intermediary variable indirectly facilitating the association between racial microaggressions and unfavorable mental help-seeking attitudes. This study sought to broaden the cultural mistrust framework’s applicability to Asian and Asian American college students by (1) replicating the framework using a national multi-campus sample and (2) integrating internalized model minority myth (i.e., unrestricted mobility and achievement orientation) via a conditional process approach. Methods: This study used cross-sectional data from a national sample of Asian and Asian American college students (N = 180, Mage = 21.47 [SD=1.84]). Path models estimated indirect and direct associations, as well as conditional changes to the pathways and associations. Results: Results demonstrated racial microaggressions were positively associated with more cultural mistrust (a-path; β = 1.22, 95% CI = [0.89, 1.67]), which in turn was associated with less favorable mental help-seeking attitudes (b-path; β = -.08, 95% CI = [-0.13, -0.03]). Neither pathway differed separately as a function of the internalized model minority myth constructs. However, the indirect racial microaggressions and mental help-seeking attitudes associations became more unfavorable overall as the belief in unrestricted mobility increases (low to medium, medium to high), but only detectable at low and medium levels of achievement orientation. Conclusion: Findings lent further empirical support for the applicability of the cultural mistrust framework to characterize Asian and Asian American college students’ mental help-seeking attitudes. Additionally, unrestricted mobility and achievement orientation moderated the cultural mistrust framework in a joint process. Findings highlighted the importance of centering Asian Americans racialized experiences in mental health settings where the systemic mischaracterization of Asian Americans as model minority is core to the Asian diaspora identity.

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Open Access

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