The Effects of Ethnic Social Networks on Mental Health Care Utilization Among Minority Groups in the United States

American Minorities including Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians are significantly less likely to receive mental health treatment than Whites, even though they have comparable mental disorder symptoms to them. The relationship between ethnic social network and mental health care utilization can be two-way. On the one hand, ethnic social network can enhance mental health utilization as a channel of knowledge spillovers. On the other hand, ethnic social network can work as a barrier to mental health care utilization as a source of stigmatization. This study examined the overall effects of ethnic social network on mental health care utilization among minority groups in the United States.

Using the 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, a multilevel generalized linear model was adopted to analyze the effects of ethnic social network on mental health care utilization, controlling marital status, employment, insurance coverage, age, education, income, and mental disorder severity. Empirical analyses showed that ethnic social network were negatively associated with mental health care utilization among Hispanics and Asians. Hispanics (Asians) living in a large Hispanic (Asian) community were less likely to receive mental health care utilization. As the size of the Hispanics (Asians) in a county increases by one million, the expected log odds of mental health care utilization of a Hispanic (Asian) mental disorder patient decreases by 0.49 units (4.31 units). Hispanics and Asians have relatively lower rates of English proficiency than other ethnic groups. The larger effects of ethnic social network on mental health utilization among Hispanics and Asians can be explained by the relatively lower English proficiency. These results suggests that public health interventions should be implemented to reduce the mental health stigmatization and provide more culturally responsive care to Hispanics (Asians) living in the large Hispanic (Asian) community.