Effects of mental health interventions with Asian Americans: a review and meta-analysis
Abstract
Objective Evidence demonstrating treatment efficacy for ethnic minorities has grown in recent years; however, Asian Americans (i.e., of East Asian or Southeast Asian heritage) are mostly excluded from recent reviews. In this review we (a) synthesize the literature on mental health treatment effects for Asian Americans and (b) evaluate support for competing theoretical perspectives on cultural tailoring. Method A literature search supplemented with other search strategies identified 21 randomized trials of mental health interventions for Asian Americans (n = 6,377 total participants). The meta-analysis was based on random-effects models. Results Overall, results show that posttreatment effects were relatively large and significant (d = .75, SE = .14, p = .000). However, there was substantial heterogeneity across studies (ES range = -.04 to 2.61), with moderator analyses indicating that effects differed significantly by target problem, diagnostic status, and comparison group. Also, specificity of cultural tailoring was significantly associated with treatment outcomes, with treatments tailored specifically for Asian subgroups (e.g., Chinese Americans) showing the largest effects (d = 1.10), and those with no cultural tailoring or non-Asian tailoring (d = .25) showing the smallest effects. Conclusions Findings suggest that mental health treatments are efficacious for Asian Americans and that cultural tailoring can enhance treatment outcomes. In general, these findings lend suppor…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Treatment effects varied by problem type, with only a small number of trials targeting anxiety disorders other than PTSD.
“However, treatment effects varied by problem type, with only a small number that targeted anxiety disorders other than PTSD.”
From Let Nature Take Its Course: Cultural Adaptation and Pilot Test of Taoist Cognitive Therapy for Chinese American Immigrants With Generalized Anxiety Disorder (2020) · cites this paper as Huey and Tilley (2018)
Treatments tailored for specific Asian subgroups (e.g., Chinese Americans) produced substantially larger effects (d = 1.10) compared to those without culture-specific tailoring.
“Huey and Tilley (2018) examined treatments designed specifically for Asian Americans in 21 randomized trials (n = 6,377 participants) and found that those tailored for specific Asian subgroups (e.g., Chinese Americans) produced substantially larger effects (d = 1.10) compared to those without culture-specific tailoring.”
From Let Nature Take Its Course: Cultural Adaptation and Pilot Test of Taoist Cognitive Therapy for Chinese American Immigrants With Generalized Anxiety Disorder (2020) · cites this paper as Huey and Tilley (2018)
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 78 · Cited by 79
- Authors
- Huey, S. J., & Tilley, J. L.
- Venue
- Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
- Published
- 2018-11
- Volume
- 86
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 915-930
- ISSN
- 0022-006X (ISSN-L)
- 1939-2117
- OpenAlex
- W2897680835
- Cited by
- 79
- References
- 78
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 4.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Counseling Practices and Supervision
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- Asian Americans, mental health interventions, cultural tailoring, treatment efficacy, ethnic minority mental health, Chinese Americans, psychotherapy
- MeSH terms
- Asian, Mental Disorders, Female, Humans, Male, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Professional-Patient Relations, Psychotherapy, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Treatment Outcome, Culturally Competent Care
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
