{"id":42558,"date":"2026-05-31T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T14:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=42558"},"modified":"2026-06-02T00:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T07:09:14","slug":"chinese-american-teens-experience-depression-anxiety-at-higher-rates-than-peers-heres-why-their-parents-may-miss-the-warning-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/chinese-american-teens-experience-depression-anxiety-at-higher-rates-than-peers-heres-why-their-parents-may-miss-the-warning-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese American teens experience depression, anxiety at higher rates than peers \u2013 here\u2019s why their parents may miss the warning signs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Huaying Wang<\/a>, Cleveland State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has straight A\u2019s, a full schedule of Advanced Placement classes, a chair in the youth orchestra and a bedroom wallpapered with college acceptance letters. She also hasn\u2019t slept a full night in months. She lies awake at 2 a.m., convinced she is a burden to her family \u2013 and she has no idea how to tell anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know students like this. My niece \u2013 a teenager who was quiet, hardworking and by every outward measure doing well \u2013 was one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, she died by suicide. Her family was not aware she was depressed, no one at her school had raised a concern, and she never sought any mental health support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After her death, I began asking different questions \u2013 not only as a family member, but also as an educator and researcher. Between 2023 and 2025, I interviewed 11 Chinese immigrant parents living in the U.S. about how they understood their children\u2019s mental health and why many families avoid mental health services, even when their children are struggling<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parents I interviewed for my doctoral dissertation at Cleveland State University were not indifferent to their children\u2019s suffering or overall well-being. They were navigating mental health through a different framework \u2013 one shaped by deeply held, traditional Chinese beliefs about family honor and self-control. Often, they didn\u2019t have the language and understanding to easily discuss mental health openly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Schools could adapt their mental health and counseling services to make sure they are connecting with Chinese immigrant families and other families from different cultures. Raul Ortin\/Moment\/Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When distress has no name<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While many immigrant teenagers are vulnerable to mental health challenges<\/a>, Chinese and Chinese American teenagers whose parents are immigrants experience higher rates of anxiety and depression than many of their peers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suicide rates among Asian American girls age 10 to 19, meanwhile, have more than doubled over the past two decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this escalating crisis, a massive treatment gap persists among youth: Only about 10% of Asian American college students and adolescents experiencing emotional distress seek professional help<\/a>. This leaves the vast majority of these students to struggle silently, because of stigma, academic pressure and fear of their parents\u2019 response if they seek help<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Chinese immigrant families I spoke with did not use labels people in the West might use, like depression or anxiety, to describe emotional distress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese and Chinese American children and teenagers struggling with mental health challenges might say they are tired, for example. Chinese immigrant parents often only see their children\u2019s physical symptoms, like headaches or loss of appetite. Neither the child nor the parent has the vocabulary to connect what they are seeing to depression or anxiety \u2013 and the school sends home an English-language brochure that no one reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In tight-knit immigrant communities where reputation matters and word travels fast, admitting that a child is struggling can feel like broadcasting the family\u2019s failure to everyone who knows them<\/a>. One parent in my study told me in 2024:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChinese parents care a lot about \u2018face.\u2019 If something is positive, they want the whole world to know; but if it\u2019s negative, they would prefer to hide or cover it up. Even if they are facing an issue, they are unlikely to seek help publicly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Chinese parent described how the words \u201cmental illness\u201d are heard in her community:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf someone has even a minor mental issue, others think they\u2019re not normal and may discriminate, or even gossip about it. \u2018Mental illness\u2019 is often used as an insult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My research, in the process of publication, also found that many parents missed the warning signs of a child\u2019s mental health deterioration entirely \u2013 not because they were not watching, but because they did not know what they were looking for. Many described a \u201cwait and see\u201d approach, assuming that teenage stress was temporary and that the child would grow out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Chinese father, an elementary school teacher who had a 21-year-old son, described what he observes in his community:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost parents want to protect their child and believe their child is normal. Often parents just hope to get through the day \u2014 they think if the child acts up, it\u2019s nothing, it\u2019ll pass. A lot of days just pass by, and these issues get ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One mother in my study shared a story that has stayed with me. A teenage boy in her community jumped from a building on the first day of school because he could not turn in a homework assignment. He survived. Later, his mother realized she had missed warning signs for years, mistaking his exhaustion and withdrawal for laziness. As my participant explained:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boy\u2019s mother \u201cused to think he was just lazy or unmotivated. But in reality, he had no energy \u2014 he was deeply lacking motivation. Her philosophy was \u2018diligence can make up for lack of talent,\u201d this other parent described.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What schools get wrong<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Schools are one place to intervene in identifying and supporting students with mental health needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some parents in my study described supportive teachers who reached out with genuine compassion when they noticed a student pulling away or struggling. Far more encountered counselors who did not understand the family\u2019s cultural context, sent home materials only in English or treated behaviors that were entirely normal within a Chinese household, like a child avoiding eye contact or expressing disagreement through silence rather than words, as a cause for concern<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a school\u2019s entire approach to student mental health is built around the expectation that students will name their feelings directly and families will welcome a clinical referral, it may feel foreign \u2013 and therefore unsafe \u2013 to many Chinese American families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that real progress on supporting Chinese American youth mental health requires a few things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, states with growing Chinese immigrant and Chinese American populations could fund bilingual, bicultural mental health services. Screening tools used in schools could recognize what might be a cultural way to express distress in Chinese culture, not only through the self-reporting language of Western psychiatry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, I think that schools could invest in bilingual family liaison roles within counseling teams \u2013 not just translators of paperwork, but genuine bridges between two worlds. Mental health systems could build formal partnerships with the community institutions that families already trust: Chinese-language churches, cultural organizations and community centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My niece was celebrated for her grades, her discipline and her quiet reliability. What she needed was for someone to look past all of that and see how she was really doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I cannot change what happened to my niece. But her death continues to shape my work \u2013 and my belief that schools, families and communities must learn to see young people more fully \u2013 not only for what they achieve, but for what they carry silently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, the free and confidential 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline<\/a> is available to call, text or chat.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huaying Wang<\/a>, Researcher in Education, Cleveland State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Huaying Wang, Cleveland State University She has straight A\u2019s, a full schedule of Advanced Placement classes, a chair in the youth orchestra and a bedroom wallpapered with college acceptance letters. She also hasn\u2019t slept a full night in months. She lies awake at 2 a.m., convinced she is a burden to her family \u2013 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":42559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8025,42,10,36,38],"tags":[17821,4851,4130,885,891,886,860,200,7228,17822,10767,1242],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42558"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42560,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42558\/revisions\/42560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}