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A Culture-Centered Approach to Assessing Mental Health Needs of Adolescents and Young Adults of South Asian Descent

Principal Investigator:
Lisa Mikesell,
Associate Professor of Communication

Fast Facts

Co-PIs: Sunanda Gaur, MD; Usha Ramachandran, MD, and Dr. L. Nandini Moorthy
Community Linkage: South Asian Mental Health Initiative and Network, the Rotary Club of Plainsboro, and TK church
Project Expression: Mental health needs assessment
Project Timeline: 3/29/2022-2/28/2023
Funding: National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
More Information: lisa.mikesell@rutgers.edu

Our team is working to address the mental health needs of adolescents and young adults of South Asian (SA AYAs) descent in New Jersey. More than 1 million residents identify as Asian and the South Asian community is one of the fastest growing in the state. But their needs have been largely unmet in both mental health services and policies. Research shows that the myth of the “model minority” exerts a negative impact, particularly on AYAs. The SA community has also been shown to underuse mental health services and SA AYAs face several risk factors including parent-child acculturation gaps, language brokering, and experiences of racial discrimination. Our team is in a yearlong study, working with a 10-person advisory board and two community partners and has been holding focus groups with adolescents and young adults of South Asian descent and their parents. We will also be holding community-based concept mapping workshops to begin to develop a community-driven intervention/resources that is/are age-appropriate and culturally adolescents and young adults tailored.