Correlates of mental health literacy among first-generation Korean American immigrant women.

HEALTH literacy; IMMIGRANTS; SCALE analysis (Psychology); SELF-evaluation; STATISTICAL correlation; MENTAL health; CRONBACH'S alpha; T-test (Statistics); RESEARCH funding; CENTER for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale; CONCEPTUAL models; STATISTICAL sampling; MULTIPLE regression analysis; PSYCHOLOGY of women; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; KOREANS; PSYCHOLOGY; CONCEPTUAL structures; STATISTICS; ANALYSIS of variance; RESEARCH; SOCIAL support; ENGLISH language; PSYCHOSOCIAL factors; MENTAL depression; COMMUNICATION barriers

SOUTH Korea; SOUTHERN States

Korean American immigrants historically have and continue to underutilize mental health services and treatment. A lower level of mental health literacy has been found to account for low rates of mental health services. This study examined mental health literacy and its correlates in a sample of first-generation Korean American immigrant women (N = 243) from a large metro area in the Southeast U.S. Those with higher English proficiency, social support, and lower depression levels were more likely to have higher mental health literacy levels. Strategies to increase mental health literacy among Korean American immigrant women are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social Work in Mental Health is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)