An exploration of help-seeking among South Asians living in the UK

Culture can often influence how psychological distress is experienced and where help is sought. South Asians are the largest ethnic minority group in the United Kingdom (UK). This paper aimed to explore how second-generation South Asian adolescents make sense of their experiences of psychological distress and the meanings attributed to help-seeking. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with nine second-generation adolescents aged 13-19 years. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was employed. Five superordinate themes emerged from the analysis: feeling distressed, negative impact of family and cultural ideals on the self, connectedness to others, perception of help-seeking outside the family and intergenerational differences in help-seeking. The results indicated that help is sought from families when participants perceive they are able to relate to the source of distress. However, when there is a lack of understanding of distress, participants sought this from external sources of help. Professional help-seeking appeared influenced by the interplay between not meeting family ideals, intergenerational differences in understanding of distress and the stigma of seeking help. Clinical and research implications are discussed.