An Exploration of Asian Engineering Students' Mental Health Conditions, Support, and Stigma-Related Barriers to Help-Seeking

This research full paper explores how Asian cultural tenets and engineering culture may affect Asian engineering student mental health conditions and help-seeking attitudes in the U.S. context. This exploratory qualitative study framed under social identity theory and intersectionality used one-on-one interviews with eleven Asian-identifying students to explore their experience with mental health conditions, the strategies for support they would seek, and the different types of stigma that most commonly affect their help-seeking attitudes. Students reported on experiencing depression, stress, and anxiety, which were often intertwined with their experiences of the high demands of an engineering degree, which provides additional evidence for the problematic aspects of engineering culture and contributes to the eradication of the model minority stereotype. Friends and family were often cited as the hypothesized first barrier of support for most participants in the study, highlighting the relevance of opportunities to create strong networks of support and destigmatization of MHCs. Social interactions, along with acculturation to Western society, are also shown to be a deciding factor in positive help-seeking attitudes among international Asian students. Finally, cultural, familial, and self-stigma were identified in students' attitudes towards help-seeking, which demonstrates that there is still a lot of work to do across culturally relevant destigmatization of MHC.