Behavioral Science

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Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 16, Pages 1804: Supporting Chinese American Youth Mental Health Through Culturally Responsive Parenting Workshops and Youth Social–Emotional Learning

Chinese American youth and their immigrant parents face multiple challenges, including discrimination and acculturative stress, which negatively affect their social–emotional development and mental health. Despite elevated needs, Chinese American youth are less likely than their White peers to access school-based or community-based mental health services. We partnered with Chinese language schools to deliver two interventions: Parent–Child Connect, a culturally responsive parenting workshop, and the culturally adapted version of Merrell’s Strong Kids socio-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum to support youth mental health. A total of 49 Chinese American parents (M = 44.88 years, SD = 4.94; 90% mothers) participated in the six-week Parent–Child Connect workshop. Thirty youth (4th grade to 8th grade, 70% girls) participated in the six-week culturally adapted Strong Kids SEL program. Parents reported significant increases in positive parenting after the intervention, including warmth (d = 0.40), reasoning (d = 0.34), autonomy granting (d = 0.38), parent–child communication (d = 1.44), and perceived parenting competence (d = 1.11), along with a significant decrease in their own mental health difficulties/general distress (d = 0.33). Parents also reported a significant increase in youth prosocial behavior (d = 0.46). Youth reported significant increases in SEL knowledge, social–emotional competencies, and resilience (d = 0.99) and a marginal increase in emotion-focused coping (d = 0.43), after the intervention. Qualitative feedback suggested that parents and youth found the culturally tailored and interactive activities engaging, sought additional opportunities to practice coping strategies, and reported developing strategies for responding to discrimination. Findings suggest that culturally adapted parenting and SEL programs are feasible and potentially beneficial for Chinese American families when delivered in collaboration with language schools and community organizations. We discuss implications for how school psychologists, counselors, and educators can adapt interventions to better support immigrant families, promote youth social–emotional development, and improve mental health outcomes.

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