Ethnic Families and Mental Health

Mental health and well-being has become an increasingly important social concern today, and the manner in which families perceive and respond to mentally ill family members is often directly linked to symptom management and treatment outcomes. There has been a limited amount of research focusing on non-Caucasian families’ mental health concerns, yet some emerging evidence suggests that ethnicity may play a role in a variety of ways. The purpose of this article will be to apply the ABC-X Model of Family Stress to organize the research on ethnic families and mental health issues. In particular, occurrence of the stressor of mental illness among ethnic families, family resources that may be most relevant to ethnic families, and research highlighting the unique ways in which ethnic families may perceive mental health and illness conditions will be discussed. In addition, future research directions to better understand the interaction between ethnic families and mental health, as well as programmatic and policy initiatives that can address potential family, community, and large-scale social obstacles in seeking treatment will be presented.