Determinants of Depression Risk among Three Asian American Subgroups in New York City

Objective: Although the fastest growing minority group, Asian Americans receive little attention in mental health research. Moreover, aggregated data mask further diversity within Asian Americans. This study aimed to examine depression risk by detailed Asian American subgroup, and further assess determinants within and between three Asian ethnic subgroups.Methods: Needs assessment surveys were collected in 16 Asian American subgroups (six Southeast Asian, six South Asian, and four East Asian) in New York City from 2013-2016 using community-based sampling strategies. A final sample of N=1,532 completed the PHQ-2. Bivariate comparisons and multivariable logistic models explored differences in depression risk by subgroup.Results: Southeast Asians had the greatest depression risk (19%), followed by South Asians (11%) and East Asians (9%). Among Southeast Asians, depression risk was associated with lacking health insurance (OR=.2, 95% CI: 0-.6), not having a provider who speaks the same language (OR=3.2, 95% CI: 1.3-8.0), and lower neighborhood social cohesion (OR= .94, 95% CI: .71-.99). Among South Asians, depression risk was associated with greater English proficiency (OR=3.9, 95% CI: 1.6-9.2); and among East Asians, depression risk was associated with ≤ high school education (OR=4.2, 95% CI: 1.2-14.3). Additionally, among Southeast Asians and South Asians, the highest depression risk was associated with high levels of discrimination (Southeast Asian: OR=9.9, 95% CI: 1.8-56.2; South Asian: OR=7.3, 95% CI: 3.3-16.2).Conclusions: Depression risk and determinants differed by Asian American ethnic subgroup. Identifying factors associated with depression risk among these groups is key to targeting limited public health resources for these underserved communities. Ethn Dis. 2020;30(4):553-562; doi:10.18865/ed.30.4.553

Download Full-text

Working but Poor in New York City

10.36650/nexus9.1-2_101-112_shih ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 9 (1-2) ◽

pp. 101-112

Author(s):

Howard Shih

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

New York City ◽

Asian Americans ◽

Asian American ◽

Low Income ◽

York City ◽

Safety Net ◽

Low Income Families ◽

American Children ◽

American Poverty

This policy brief summarizes the methodology and key findings of the Asian American Federation’s report, Working but Poor: Asian Americans in New York City. The report marked the first time Asian American poverty in New York City was examined in detail using the new American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample. The report also uses two definitions to examine struggling Asian Americans, the official poverty thresholds traditionally used and a concept of low-income families defined as families living below twice the federal poverty thresholds. After a summary on the methodology of the report, the brief will cover the findings and recommendations through three issue areas: improving job opportunities for working-age Asian Americans, building skills to help Asian American children broaden their future opportunities, and helping seniors in need of access to the social safety net. The brief concludes with an overview of Asian American poverty from a national perspective and discussion of future areas of study.

Download Full-text

East West Players and After: Acting and Activism

Theatre Survey ◽

10.1017/s0040557416000107 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 57 (2) ◽

pp. 253-263

Author(s):

Christine Mok

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

New York City ◽

Asian Americans ◽

Asian American ◽

York City ◽

Steering Committee ◽

Ethnic Representation ◽

American Theatre ◽

For Profit ◽

Not For Profit

“Where are all the Asian actors in mainstream New York theatre?” What began as a plaintive status update on Facebook launched a full-scale investigation by Asian American actors that culminated in a report titled “Ethnic Representation on New York City Stages” and the formation in the fall of 2011 of an advocacy group, the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC). AAPAC's findings were disheartening. In the preceding five years, Asian Americans had received only 3 percent of all available roles in not-for-profit theatre and only 1.5 percent of all available roles on Broadway. The percentage of roles filled by African American and Latino actors, in contrast, had increased since 2009. According to the report, “Asian Americans were the only minority group to see their numbers go down from levels set five years ago.” The data AAPAC compiled were both surprising in their concreteness and unsurprising in their bleakness. The Facebook query sparked an active digital conversation that touched a collective sense of discord just below the surface for many Asian American theatre artists, especially actors. Ralph Peña, artistic director of Ma-Yi Theatre Company, invited key Facebook commenters to hold a more formal conversation about access, embodiment, and Asian American representation. This group, many of whom were artists in midcareer, trained at top conservatories, and fostered in New York City's vibrant Asian American theatre community, became the Steering Committee of AAPAC. The members of the Steering Committee channeled their frustration and anger into archive fever by researching and documenting ethnic representation on Broadway and in sixteen of the largest not-for-profit theatres in New York City over a five-year period. In front of an audience of three hundred, members of AAPAC presented their findings at a roundtable at Fordham University on 13 February 2012 that included prominent artistic directors, agents, directors, casting directors, and producers and was moderated by David Henry Hwang. With the report in hand, AAPAC members roused the New York theatre community with a series of town hall–style meetings and urged theatrical production gatekeepers to do, if not better, then, something.

Download Full-text

A Tale of Two Global Cities: The State of Asian Americans in Los Angeles and New York

10.36650/nexus10.2_1-22_shihetal ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 1-22

Author(s):

Howard Shih ◽

Melany De La Cruz-Viesca

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

New York ◽

New York City ◽

Los Angeles ◽

Asian Americans ◽

Asian American ◽

York City ◽

Los Angeles County ◽

The United States ◽

Metro Area

At the national level, the Asian American population has grown more than any other major race group. According to the 2010 Census, the Los Angeles metro area had 2,199,186 Asians, making it the home to the largest Asian population in the United States. Following close behind was the New York City metro area with 2,008,906 Asians. Over a quarter of the 14.7 million Asian Americans reside in either of the two greater metropolitan regions, where they comprise around a tenth of the total population in each metropolis. We begin with a brief historical overview of immigration legislation that has both invited and excluded Asian Americans, as a means of understanding how Asian Americans have been perceived over time. We will also compare some key characteristics of Asian American populations in Los Angeles County, New York City, the Balance of LA Combined Statistical Area (CSA) (excluding Los Angeles County), and the Balance of NYC CSA (excluding New York City), and the Balance of the United States. The paper will cover: (1) demographic trends and patterns (2) economic status (3) political engagement and incorporation, and (4) residential settlement patterns. We close with a discussion of how these demographic changes have contributed to Asian Americans rapid social, economic, and political upward mobility in the last decade, at a time when the global restructuring of the economy has blurred nation-state boundaries that once existed and migration from Asia to the United States has become more complex, particularly over the past two decades.

Download Full-text

Race

The Taming of New York's Washington Square ◽

10.18574/nyu/9781479878574.003.0005 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 165-193

Author(s):

Erich Goode

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

New York City ◽

African Americans ◽

York City ◽

South Asians ◽

Black Population ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

East Asians ◽

Racial Categories ◽

History Of

Race plays a role in Washington Square Park, but often in unpredictable ways. The little survey the author conducted indicates that virtually no one in the park considers race a meaningful basis for social interaction with others, or has anything to do with judgments of deviance. Some urban public spaces are cosmopolitan in that all races are accepted on a more or less equal basis. The history of African Americans in and around the square has been conflictual, largely unwelcoming, and sometimes violent. The demographics of New York City and Greenwich Village indicates that very few African Americans live in the Village, far less than visitors to the park, and the black population of Manhattan is much smaller than that of New York City as a whole—and declining over time. The author conducted a racial tally of dyads in the park and found that whites in-socialize with other whites more than with any other group; blacks socialize more with other blacks than members of other racial categories, as do South Asians, but East Asians socialize more with non-East Asians. Overall, park-goers out-socialize more than elsewhere. The author believes that out-socialization may have long-term effects on racial acceptance.

Download Full-text

Prevalence and Correlates of Cultural Smokeless Tobacco Products among South Asian Americans in New York City

Journal of Community Health ◽

10.1007/s10900-019-00649-2 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 44 (3) ◽

pp. 479-486 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Benjamin H. Han ◽

Laura C. Wyatt ◽

Scott E. Sherman ◽

Nadia S. Islam ◽

Chau Trinh-Shevrin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

New York City ◽

South Asian ◽

Asian Americans ◽

Smokeless Tobacco ◽

York City ◽

Tobacco Products ◽

South Asian Americans ◽

Smokeless Tobacco Products

Download Full-text

Self-perceived oral health among three subgroups of Asian-Americans in New York City: a preliminary study

Community Dentistry And Oral Epidemiology ◽

10.1034/j.1600-0528.2001.290204.x ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 99-106 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Gustavo D. Cruz ◽

Diana L. Galvis ◽

Mimi Kim ◽

Racquel Z. Le-Geros ◽

Su-Yan L. Barrow ◽

...

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

New York City ◽

Oral Health ◽

Asian Americans ◽

York City ◽

Preliminary Study

Download Full-text

Messy, Energetic, Intense: A Roundtable Conversation among New York's Asian American Experimental Filmmakers of the Eighties with Roddy Bogawa, Daryl Chin, Shu Lea Cheang, and Rea Tajiri

Film Quarterly ◽

10.1525/fq.2020.73.3.66 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 73 (3) ◽

pp. 66-78

Author(s):

Vince Schleitwiler ◽

Abby Sun ◽

Rea Tajiri

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

New York City ◽

Asian American ◽

York City ◽

American Film ◽

The Sixties ◽

History Of

This roundtable grew out of conversations between filmmaker Rea Tajiri, programmer Abby Sun, and scholar Vince Schleitwiler about a misunderstood chapter in the history of Asian American film and media: New York City in the eighties, a vibrant capital of Asian American filmmaking with a distinctively experimental edge. To tell this story, Rea Tajiri contacted her artist contemporaries Shu Lea Cheang and Roddy Bogawa as well as writer and critic Daryl Chin. Daryl had been a fixture in New York City art circles since the sixties, his presence central to Asian American film from the beginning. The scope of this discussion extends loosely from the mid-seventies through the late nineties, with Tajiri, Abby Sun, and Vince Schleitwiler initiating topics, compiling responses, and finalizing its form as a collage-style conversation.

Download Full-text