Data Reveals Serious Mental Health Challenges Amongst AANHPI Students—But There is Hope in Cultural Connection
SDRG researcher Max Halvorson, alongside fellow University of Washington researchers Jenn Nguyễn and Santino Camacho, recently had their work featured in Northwest Asian Weekly (1 and 2). Two recent news articles highlighted their work from a two-year study on Washington’s Asian and Asian American (As/AsAm) and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NH/PI) students, which was presented at this year’s Asian Pacific Directors Coalition (APDC) meeting.
The study, commissioned by the state of Washington’s Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee and Committee on Asian Pacific American Affairs, examined different facets of life for these students, recognizing the differences inherent in the many cultures, races, and ethnicities so often lumped together as a monolith under the AANHPI umbrella. This kind of grouping, as the researchers’ data showed, misses important variability among distinct communities in Washington—such as struggles in school and serious mental health challenges that differ among these culturally distinct groups.
The study found that cultural responsiveness both supported students’ mental health, and their ability to learn. Because the researchers also looked at cultural nuance, they discovered that students from different communities required different approaches to learning that did not either punish them for adhering to cultural values or force them to choose between keeping up with schoolwork and honoring their heritage and traditions.
The researchers also found that having educators in the classroom who came from the same backgrounds as the students was important, and that these educators couldn’t necessarily just come from any group under the AANHPI umbrella.
The researchers recommended that educators and legislators recognize these differences, and build supportive frameworks that mirror important cultural structures.
To learn more about this study, please see the two articles linked below:
1. Cultural struggles and educational gaps: The unique challenges of AANHPI students
The reports produced by the study can be found here: