Culturally Anchored Mental-Health Attitudes: The Impact of Language

Abstract

Culture plays a key role in the long-standing underutilization of professional mental-health services among immigrants and ethnic minorities, especially among Asian communities. Furthermore, language nativeness can modulate the salience of cultural norms. Through a series of four experimental studies ( N = 1,120), we evaluated whether bilingual speakers’ attitudes toward mental-health treatment are affected by whether they are using their native Chinese or foreign English. Overall, participants more strongly endorsed mental-health treatment when information was presented in English. The same outcome was found for participants residing in the United States and mainland China. Consistent with a language-priming-culture hypothesis, participants using Chinese endorsed mental-health treatment less when their affiliation with traditional Asian values was higher, whereas in English their recommendations remained independent of affiliation with traditional Asian values. In sum, these studies reveal the significance of language in culturally anchored mental-health attitudes.