The Chinese Immigrants Sociocultural Models of Mental Health and Illness: A comprehensive literature

Immigrants of Chinese origin make up one of the largest non-English ethnic groups in Canada. Being stereotyped as a “model minority” group, their mental health and psychological wellbeing is often neglected. Previous studies observed that many Chinese immigrants suffer from a range of mental disorders and a lack of usage of mental health services. In this presentation, the authors will address some cultural factors and barriers that may negatively influence the mental health of Chinese immigrants. To identify these barriers, the authors will use a theory of sociocultural models (TSCM). This theory regards culture as a socially distributed system of “models” consisting of intersubjectively shared and taken-for-granted ideas about the world and its objects, including people and their mental states. To identify the maladaptive components of the Chinese SCMs of mental health and illness that prevent immigrants from accessing efficient mental health services, the researchers conducted a comprehensive review of the literature to examine these SCMs. The results showed that immigrants’ SCMs about the sources of mental health and the origin of mental illnesses, their perception of SCMs of Western medicine, and the Chinese cultural stigma towards mental illness are the main barriers to accessing mental health services. To conclude, SCMs of mental health and illness are powerful determinants for Chinese immigrants’ behaviors in seeking mental health services. In their future research, the authors will focus on empirical identification and examination of the extracted SCMs of mental health and illness.