Sumie Okazaki

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at New York University

Rising anti-Asian racism and the recent police killings of unarmed Black people have called attention to how Asian and Black Americans experience racism and how they perceive one another. Using data from a recent national sample of Asian (n = 1078) and Black Americans (n = 367), we explored socio-demographic (demographic, socioeconomic, political,...

This qualitative study examined the college pathways of mostly working-class immigrant-origin youth of color (Black, East Asian, Latino/a) in New York City. Using a thematic analysis approach with bridging multiple worlds theory and social capital theory as guiding conceptual frameworks, we examined facilitators and barriers that 30 working-class i...

Leveraging data from a longitudinal study of Chinese families ( n = 364), this research aims to understand the role of secure base script knowledge as a cognitive mechanism by which early caregiving experiences inform adolescents’ friendship quality and feelings of loneliness. Results showed that observed maternal sensitivity at 14 and 24 months ol...

Using national data from Project Implicit, the authors examine state-level variations in implicit and explicit bias against Asian Americans held by non–Asian Americans (n = 196,678) from 2018 to 2022. The findings reveal considerable heterogeneity in implicit and explicit bias across states. Data and code files are available in the NYU UltraViole...

Using national data from Project Implicit, the authors examine state-level variations in implicit and explicit bias against Asian Americans held by non–Asian Americans ( n = 196,678) from 2018 to 2022. The authors also explore state-level sociodemographic correlates of both types of bias. The findings reveal considerable heterogeneity in implicit a...

Introduction: This prospective study examined the direct and interactive effects of depressive symptoms and cultural family processes (i.e., intergenerational cultural conflict, academic parental control, cultural socialization parenting) on Asian American youths' suicidal ideation from adolescence to young adulthood. Methods: We utilized three-...

Objectives: In response to increased anti-Asian discrimination and violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examined pathways from discrimination experiences to own-group collective action in a diverse sample of 689 Asian Americans. Method: Informed by theories of ethnoracial identity, critical consciousness, and collective action and util...

Although there has been a global rise in the number of refugees forcibly displaced from their homes, much of what we know about the refugee adjustment are based on those who resettle in neighboring nations or in the West. Little is known about how refugees and asylum seekers fare as they seek safety and new opportunities in an ethnically homogeneou...

Much of the public discourse as well as research regarding the negative impact of COVID-19-related anti-Asian discrimination has been conducted at the broad racial group level, yet data aggregation masks critical points of diversity among Asian Americans. We conducted an online survey of 620 Asian American adults in December 2020 and examined wheth...

Previous research indicates that parental emotion socialization (ES) practices play important roles in adolescents’ social and emotional development. However, longitudinal studies testing bidirectional effects are relatively scarce. Additionally, most studies have focused on people from Western societies. In the current three-year, multi-informant,...

Research within Asian American psychology continually grows to include a range of topics that expand on the heterogeneity, hybridity, and multiplicity of the Asian American psychological experience. Still, research focused on distinct racialization and psychological processes of Asians in America is limited. To advance scientific knowledge on the s...

Model minority stereotypes of Asian Americans as high educational and occupational achievers are perpetuated by conceptual and methodological issues in career development research that aggregate across Asian ethnicities and oversample high achievers. These issues render those marginalized, such as working-class immigrants with limited English profi...

Gender differences are prominent among Asian Americans in the experiences of and response to racial discrimination in interpersonal interactions (Liang, Alvarez, Juang, & Liang, 2009; Liu, 2002). Asian American men report more experiences of cross-race discrimination compared with Asian American women (Wong, Owen, Tran, Collins, & Higgins, 2012), w...

In Korea, more than one-third of cross-border marriages are remarriages for at least one spouse, yet little is known about the experiences of Korean adolescents who enter into a blended multicultural family through their father’s remarriages. The current study examined the experiences of 10 Korean (seven female) adolescents ( M age = 15.9 years) pr...

Reports an error in "Documentation status and psychological distress among New York City community college students" by Ahmed Alif, Bryan S. Nelson, Ana Stefancic, Riya Ahmed and Sumie Okazaki (Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Advanced Online Publication, May 02, 2019, np). In the original article "lower self-esteem" should have r...

Objective: This research study examined how psychological distress, self-esteem, and academic performance differ across at-risk, temporary, and stable immigration statuses and whether fear of one’s own deportation and that of family members is associated with psychological distress. Method: We surveyed 150 community college students (51% female; Ma...

There has been a rapid increase in the number of migrants and refugees worldwide in recent years (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, 2017). In parallel, the United States as well as other developed nations have also witnessed an alarming rise of nationalism and hostility against immigrants and refugees. Th...

This book about Korean American immigrant families is the result of a collaboration between an anthropologist and a psychologist. Combining quantitative surveys with family ethnography, the book explored the central question, How do Korean American teens and parents navigate immigrant America? Both survey and ethnographic data revealed that accultu...

Historically, aspirations for greater economic opportunities have been a core motivation of many immigrants. However, most low-income Chinese immigrant laborers in the U.S. endure harsh working conditions on the margin of the economy and society. The current study explores qualitatively the vocational lives of low-income Chinese immigrant laborers...

To explore individual identity narratives of accommodation and resistance in relationship to dominant American social, political and cultural constructs, this paper uses the Listening Guide Method of Qualitative Inquiry (Gilligan et al., 2006) to investigate the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, gender and American identity during and post coll...

Studies of Asian American parenting have primarily focused on first generation immigrant parents. Few studies have examined the experiences of second generation Asian American adults who are now having children of their own. The purpose of this qualitative study, then, is to better understand the values, practices, and concerns of second generation...

This chapter explores transnational educational migrant families in South Korea, often called “kirogi” (wild geese) families because of the long distances members travel. Drawing on literature in various fields, the authors provide an overview of major themes, research foci, and recent developments. Whereas earlier studies focused on individual-lev...

The present study used a qualitative case study method, supplemented with a brief survey measure, to explore how university-based, coordinated strategic partnerships contributed to the process of culturally adapting and implementing evidence-based health programs. These programs aimed to improve the well-being of low-income immigrant families tradi...

Although pre-college or early study abroad (ESA) in the West used to be characterized primarily as a cosmopolitan aspirational strategy of affluent East Asian families with professional fathers and stay-at-home mothers (Cho, 2004), less-affluent middle-class Korean families have also begun to pursue ESA in the past decade. This study examined the p...

Asian Americans are commonly perceived as perpetual foreigners and, therefore, not “true” Americans. Asian Americans report inquiries about nationality and English abilities as the most common forms of racial microaggressions perpetrated by White Americans (Sue, 2015). Race theorists assert that these microaggressions are race-related and marginali...

This unprecedented volume provides a primer on diverse couples and families—one of the most numerous and fastest-growing populations in the United States—illustrating the unique challenges they face to thrive in various cultural and social surroundings. In Diversity in Couple and Family Therapy: Ethnicities, Sexualities, and Socioeconomics, a clini...

South Korea's Education Exodus analyzes Early Study Abroad in relation to the neoliberalization of South Korean education and labor. With chapters based on demographic and survey data, discourse analysis, and ethnography in destinations such as Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States, the book considers the complex motivations that sp...

Asian American adults endorse more symptoms of social anxiety (SA) on self-report measures than European Americans, but demonstrate lower prevalence rates of SA disorder in epidemiological studies. These divergent results create ambiguity concerning the mental health needs of Asian Americans. The present study is the first to investigate this issue...

In this chapter, we examine how Korean American young adults narrate and interpret immigrant family lives through the lens of religiosity. From a larger study using grounded theory approach to qualitative inquiry on Korean American young adults’ narratives about growing up in immigrant households, we selected the narratives of five Korean American...

We conducted a 3-wave, longitudinal study to examine the role of ethnic collective self-esteem and United States (U.S.) collective self-esteem on anxious-depressed symptoms over time among Asian and Latino immigrant-origin adolescents (n = 171). Growth curve analysis revealed that anxious-depressed symptoms first decreased between 10th and 11th gra...

Although Asian American youth are often viewed as the model minority group who are doing well, research with youths, parents, and school personnel have documented significant unmet mental health needs among this population. However, little is known about the perspectives of service providers who work with Asian American youth in afterschool and men...

This article provides a brief summary of existing literature on mental health disparities for Asian Americans. Emerging evidence suggests that in the aggregate, Asian Americans appear to have lower lifetime and 12-month prevalence rate for psychiatric disorders than other racial/ethnic groups, as judged by the Western psychiatric criteria. However,...

Precollege study abroad in English-speaking countries is an increasingly popular educational strategy among Asian families. We used grounded theory method to construct a model of cultural adjustment process for unaccompanied minors based the retrospective narratives of 10 (8 male) South Korean adolescents who came to the United States, unaccompanie...

Since the publication of Sue et al. (Am Psychol 62:271–286, 2007a, b) seminal article, there has been an enormous scholarly interest in psychology on this construct of racial microaggressions—subtle everyday experiences of racism. In this paper, we provide a review of racial microaggressions research literature in psychology since 2007, following t...

There have been significant advances in research on Asian American mental health within the past decade. This chapter discusses resources and strategies for conducting culturally responsive assessment and treatment with Asian Americans that highlight the theories and knowledge gained since the publication of the previous edition of this Handbook in...

Chua's (2011) book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother generated vigorous debate regarding its description of "Chinese" parenting ideology and practices. In this article, the authors analyzed the narratives from 24 Chinese mothers of middle school students in Nanjing, China to explore their parenting ideology and practices. In sharp distinction to the...

What theoretical and conceptual models do we employ in Asian American psychology? The literature in Asian American psychology to date has raised many questions about whether all or most theories and principles in psychology are sufficient. However, there has not been a clear explication to date on which, if any, theories are best suited in psycholo...

The Asian American population is a fast-growing population, with enormous within-group heterogeneity. Although the past decade has seen significant gains in psychological research on this population, there continues to be notable paucity of research in some areas of clinical personality assessment with Asian American clients. This article provides...

This chapter describes the history of Asian psychology and the core developments in this field as they relate to the study of psychopathology among Asians. It then discusses challenges posed by the globalization of psychology and psychopathology. As the field of Asian psychology is vast and growing rapidly, we provide selective coverage of the issu...

Abstract The current study examined perceptions of living up to parental expectations (LPE) and personal standards as possible mediators of the relationship between ethnicity and worry in a sample of 836 Asian American and 856 White American college students. Asian Americans reported higher frequency of academic- and family-related worries, but the...

This article provides a systematic and critical review of all behavioral science research articles about Asian Americans published in 2010. As the second review of the series, we followed the methodology and format employed in the first annual review of Asian American psychology articles published in 2009 (B. S. K. Kim, Wong, & Maffini, 2010) to fa...

Multicultural competence refers to the ability to appreciate diversity and to work effectively in multicultural settings. In this increasingly diverse and globalized world, being culturally competent has become more important than ever. Integrating research in counseling and organizational studies, the authors examine the conceptualization of cultu...

In response to a call to better integrate culture in community psychology (O'Donnell in American Journal of Community Psychology 37:1-7 2006), we offer a cultural-community framework to facilitate a collaborative engagement between community psychologists and ethnic minority communities, focusing on Asian American communities as illustrations. Exte...

Treatment outcome research focused on ethnic minorities is critically needed to eliminate mental health disparities. Because the conduct of treatment outcome research with ethnic minorities is difficult and complex, we discuss key challenges and present some methodological options suited to provide answers to specific types of questions. We focus f...

This study examined the retrospective reports of family emotion socialization experiences and current affective distress among 23 Asian American and 31 White American university students with subclinical levels of distress. Results indicated that most of the Asian Americans interviewed recalled being socialized by their family to suppress their emo...

Among Filipino Americans, colonial mentality (CM) is characterized by automatic preference for anything American and automatic rejection of anything Filipino that may be manifested overtly and covertly. Thus, 3 studies were conducted to test CM's theorized covertness and automaticity. Study 1 attempted to activate and capture the existence of CM-co...

Korean American youth experience immigration-related parent-child challenges including language barriers, parent-child conflicts, and generational cultural divides. Using grounded theory methods, this article examines the ways in which 18 Korean American college-enrolled emerging adults retrospectively made sense out of their experiences of immigra...

Numerous findings have documented the adverse effects of stereotypes on those negatively portrayed by the stereotypes. Less is known about the ramifications of stereotype exposure on those who are not the objects of the stereotypic depictions. Two studies examined the effect of exposure to an American Indian sports mascot on the stereotype endorsem...

An overview of the history of Asian American psychology is provided by reviewing the context for the development of the field as well as the early founding of the Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA). The presidents of AAPA as well as key events and conferences are noted. The involvement of AAPA leaders in national mental health policies...

Considerable attention has been paid to the academic achievements of Asian Americans because there is convergent evidence that this population has attained high educational mobility. In trying to explain the achievement patterns, researchers have largely limited their investigations to one of two contrasting hypotheses involving (a) hereditary diff...

Nationally representative data from the National Latino and Asian American Study (Alegría et al., 2004) was used to examine both disorder prevalence rates and correlates of distress for the South Asian American subgroup (n = 164). South Asian Americans generally appeared to have lower or comparable rates of lifetime and 12-month mood and anxiety di...

Theory and empirical research suggest that perceived self-efficacy, or one's perceived ability to perform personally significant tasks, is related to individuals' psychological well-being and mental health. Thus, the authors hypothesized that bicultural individuals' perceived ability to function competently in 2 cultures, or perceived bicultural se...

The present study examined the attitudes toward mental health services held by younger (aged 20-45, n = 209) and older (aged 60 and older, n = 462) groups of Korean Americans. Following Andersen's (1968; A behavioral model of families' use of health service, Center for Health Administration Studies) behavioral health model, predisposing (age, gende...

A problem in ethnic minority mental health that can be solved in the foreseeable future is understanding how subtle and covert forms of racism affect psychological health of racial minorities. Although scientific psychology has generated a large body of literature on racial prejudice, stereotypes, intergroup attitudes, and racial bias and their oft...

There has long been a criticism that scholarship devoted to the study of cultural variation in psychology has too easily ascribed the observed differences between different societies to essentialized notions of ‘culture’ while paying less attention to historical forces that shape these differences. In this paper, we argue that the conceptual framew...

Date revised - 20070212, Language of summary - English, Number of references - 21, Pages - 11-28, ProQuest ID - 621431032, PubXState - CA, SubjectsTermNotLitGenreText - 620 6761; 6474 5733; 6640 870 7687 7259, Target audience - Psychology: Professional & Research, Last updated - 2012-09-10, docISBN - 1412924677; 9781412924672; 1412941334, Corporate...

What theoretical and conceptual models do we employ in Asian American psychology? The literature in Asian American psychology to date has raised many questions about whether all or most theories and principles in psychology are sufficient. However, there has not been a clear explication to date on which, if any, theories are best suited in psycholo...

Although many theories about the structure of emotion have been developed, none of them seem to adequately explain the African experience. This study examined the folk emotion lexica of two indigenous West African languages. Fifty monolingual Fante speakers and 50 monolingual Dagbani speakers from rural and semirural Ghana participated in focus gro...

A large body of research points toward the utility of evidence-based psychological assessment and interventions for ethnic minority populations (Miranda et al., 2005). However, cultural influences in the assessment of psychopathology still present a challenge for cognitive-behavioral therapists given the legitimate critique that cognitive-behaviora...

Colonial mentality, or internalized colonialism, has been discussed by scholars and by Filipino American community members as a significant factor in the experiences of contemporary Filipino Americans, yet this construct has not received empirical attention in psychology. The authors of the current study addressed this gap in the Asian American psy...

Asian American students have typically reported greater levels of social anxiety than European American students on self-report measures (e.g., Okazaki, 1997; Norasakkunkit & Kalick, 2002). This study employed an event-contingent experience sampling methodology to examine whether Asian American university students experienced social anxiety more of...

Colonial mentality is a term used widely by ethnic studies scholars and by the Filipino American community to refer to a form of internalized oppression among Filipinos and Filipino Americans. The authors propose that colonial mentality is a construct that is central to the understanding of the psychology of contemporary Filipino Americans. Drawing...

This qualitative study explored the cultural adjustment experiences of 15 Asian Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese international college women through semistructured interviews. By using consensual qualitative research methodology (C. E. Hill, B. J. Thompson, & E. N. Williams, 1997), 6 primary domains or themes related to these women's cultur...

The primary purpose of this exploratory investigation was to examine self-concealment behaviors and social self-efficacy skills as potential mediators in the relationship between acculturative stress and depression in a sample of 320 African, Asian, and Latin American international college students. The authors found several differences by demograp...

This article provides a critical review of the literature on research with self-report measures of depression and anxiety in East Asia. Three trends are noteworthy. First, research on depression and anxiety in East Asia has relied heavily on the use of a limited number of translated instruments. Second, available research suggests that the Asian la...

The present study examined the degree of agreement between self-rated and peer-rated depression and social anxiety in White American and Asian American college students. A total of 160 Asian American and 177 White American target participants completed self-report measures of depression and social anxiety, and 1 peer informant completed the ratings...

Past studies have found that Asian Americans and White Americans differ not only on global levels of well- being but also on the bases for judgments of well-being. The authors examined whether cultural norms about specific mental health problems predict self-reports of those symptoms above and beyond the subjective assessment of their own functioni...

This study examined whether Asian American–White American differences on a trait measure of social anxiety extend to nonverbal behavior and to reports of anxiety-related emotions during a 3-min social performance task. Forty Asian Americans and 40 White Americans completed a trait measure of social anxiety and rated their emotions before, and immed...

Asian Americans comprise a population group that is characterized by an enormous demographic, historical, and cultural heterogeneity, yet Asian Americans also share many Asian cultural characteristics such as the primacy of the family and the collective's goals over individual wishes, emphasis on propriety and social codes, the appropriation of sex...

This study assessed whether therapist adherence to the family focused treatment model for patients with bipolar disorder and their relatives was associated with patient outcomes at one year after treatment entry. A total of 78 videotaped sessions of FFT consisting of 26 families with a member with bipolar disorder (3 sessions/family) were rated on...

Asian Americans are proportionally the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States. Over the past 30 years, Asian American psychology has been an emerging field, with an increasingly complex and sophisticated research base. Until recently, much of the work in the field has proceeded without a theoretical or conceptual framework. This book off...

Researchers and practitioners who work with Asian Americans confront fundamental questions, such as the cultural validity of the diagnostic tools and systems that are available to them, how to measure dynamic constructs like acculturation and identity in ways that meaningfully inform their work, and how to assess the cultural competence of care sys...

Cultural models have yet to gain an equal footing with other psychological and biological models of normal and abnormal behavior (Miller, 1999. Ethnic minorities continue to be under-represented in behavioral psychology research (Iwamasa & Smith, 1996), and there exist a paucity of high quality research concerned with culture and ethnicity(Sue, 199...

This study used generational status and the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation scale to examine unidimensional versus multidimensional approaches to the conceptualization and measurement of acculturation and their relationships to relevant cultural indicator variables, including measures of Individualism-Collectivism, Independent-Interdepe...

This study used generational status and the Suinn–Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation scale to examine unidimensional versus multidimensional approaches to the conceptualization and measurement of acculturation and their relationships to relevant cultural indicator variables, including measures of Individualism–Collectivism, Independent–Interdepe...

This chapter provides a selective, up-to-date review of relevant resources on Asian American mental health. It presents the salient issues in understanding the phenomenology of distress among Asian Americans, highlighting the latest research findings and pointing to some useful resources. Then, some key concepts that serve as necessary background k...

There are serious gaps in knowledge with respect to the use of standardized assessment instruments such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III; D. Wechsler, 1997) or the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; J. N. Butcher, W. G. Dahlstrom, J. R. Graham, A. Tellegen, & B. Kaemmer, 1989) with Asian Americans...

Examined whether 39 Asian Americans and 42 White Americans would show differential patterns of reporting their levels of depressive and social anxiety symptoms depending on the method of reporting. Standard self-report measures of depressive, social anxiety, and somatic symptomatology as well as measures of cultural self-construal and social desira...

There are serious gaps in knowledge with respect to the use of standardized assessment instruments such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Third Edition (WAIS-III; D. Wechsler, 1997) or the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2 (MMPI-2; J. N. Butcher, W. G. Dahlstrom, J. R. Graham, A. Tellegen, & B. Kaemmer, 1989) with Asian Americans...

Length of treatment delay and cultural-familial correlates were studied in a group of 62 Asian-American patients with severe mental illness, and 40 of their relatives. Contrary to prior findings of long treatment delay among Asian Americans, this cohort reported relatively low levels of stigma and shame and relatively short delay between onset of p...

This article presents a set of pedagogical approaches and suggested topics and materials for teaching gender issues in Asian American psychology. The experiences of contemporary Asian American women and men must be understood with an appreciation for the larger social, political, and historical contexts in which they live. Thus, several topics desi...

The present study assessed fidelity to the behavioral family management (BFM) model for treating bipolar disorder patients and their families. The BFM Therapist Competency/Adherence Scale (BFM-TCAS) was developed to evaluate clinicians' competency and adherence to BFM, as outlined by Miklowitz' (1989) BFM Manual for use with bipolar patients. Thera...

Although the number and the ethnic composition of Asian American populations in the United States have changed dramatically in the last 2 decades, we have little empirical support for what constitutes a culturally competent assessment practice with individuals from this population group. It is argued that major sociodemographic shifts within the As...

This study tested an affect-specific explanation for the Asian and White American differences in depression and social anxiety. Construal of the self as independent or interdependent in relation to others (H. R. Markus & S. Kitayama, 1991) was hypothesized to be 1 possible way in which culture may be expressed in individuals’ psychological function...

discusses the psychosocial adjustment and adaptation of Southeast Asian refugees, their cultural belief systems, and their barriers to mental health services and use of traditional methods / looks at counseling services and provides an in-depth exploration of the Multi-Level Model [MLM] as an approach to psychotherapy with refugees and a case study...

Assessment research on ethnic minorities presents multiple methodological and conceptual challenges. This article addresses the difficulties in defining and examining ethnicity as a variable in psychological research. The authors assert that many of the problems stem from not making explicit the assumptions underlying the use of ethnicity as an exp...

The present study investigated the simultaneous effects of ethnic and gender therapist-client match on mental health services. The sample consisted of over 1,000 Asian-American women who received mental health services at Los Angeles County facilities in the mid-1980s. Regression analyses were employed to determine the effects of match on client sa...

Responds to comments of R. Lynn, I. Liu, and D. Fox (see PA, Vol 78:34660, 34658, and 34651, respectively) concerning S. Sue and S. Okazaki's (see record 1990-32071-001) explanations for Asian-American educational achievement. Sue and Okazaki's relative functionalism hypothesis is defended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserv...

Responds to comments of R. Lynn, I. Liu, and D. Fox (see PA, Vol 78:34660, 34658, and 34651, respectively) concerning S. Sue and S. Okazaki's (see record 1990-32071-001) explanations for Asian-American educational achievement. Sue and Okazaki's relative functionalism hypothesis is defended.

Considerable attention has been paid to the academic achievements of Asian Americans because there is convergent evidence that this population has attained high educational mobility. In trying to explain the achievement patterns, researchers have largely limited their investigations to one of two contrasting hypotheses involving (a) hereditary diff...

Researchers and practitioners who work with Asian Americans confront fundamental questions, such as the cultural validity of the diagnostic tools and systems that are available to them, how to measure dynamic constructs like acculturation and identity in ways that meaningfully inform their work, and how to assess the cultural competence of care sys...