UC Irvine

Korean Americans experience many untreated mental health needs, and a significant percentage prefer to seek help from clergy for mental health issues. There is limited scholarship on Korean Americans’ social network characteristics and how they are related to church-goers’ intentions to seek professional mental health services and clergy’s intentions to refer to professional mental health services. Survey data was collected from 163 Korean American church-goers and 77 Korean American clergy in Los Angeles and Orange Counties between December 2020 and October 2021 to investigate if network size, network tie density, and network tie closeness are associated with Korean American church-goers’ intentions to seek professional mental health services and Korean American clergy’s intentions to refer to professional mental health services. Three possible mediators along these pathways were examined: 1) perceived availability of instrumental support; 2) perceived availability of emotional support; and 3) perceived social norms. The third study based on 21 semi-structured interviews conducted with Korean American clergy in Los Angeles and Orange Counties between December 2020 and November 2021 examined clergy’s perceptions and experience of providing mental health referrals to congregants, and what factors they consider in the decision-making process. Findings indicate that for Korean American church-goers, family and friend networks are important contexts for both perceived social norms and intentions related to seeking professional mental health services. Clergy are shaped by multiple social contexts in their referral decision-making process, including family and church networks, as well as friend networks mostly comprised of fellow clergy. The relationship between network characteristics and perceived availability of both instrumental and social support vary for church-goers and clergy by network. Finally, the qualitative study indicates that Korean American clergy mental health referrals are driven by specific factors, including their occupational context. Findings suggest clergy can act as both gateway providers and advocates for professional mental health services, and that more Korean American clergy are willing to make referrals than previously shown in the literature. Future studies can investigate mechanisms of network-specific social support and alter characteristics for pathways to professional mental health services or referrals.