Push to achieve tied to suicide in Asian-American women

[Newjack88]

<p>[Push</a> to achieve tied to suicide in Asian-American women - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/05/16/asian.suicides/index.html]Push”>Push to achieve tied to suicide in Asian-American women - CNN.com)</p>

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Moved by that tragedy, Noh has spent much of her professional life studying depression and suicide among Asian-American women. An assistant professor of Asian-American studies at California State University at Fullerton, Noh has read the sobering statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services: Asian-American women ages 15-24 have the highest suicide rate of women in any race or ethnic group in that age group. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Asian-American women in that age range.

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But Noh says pressure from within the family doesn’t completely explain the shocking suicide statistics for young women like her sister. </p>

<p>She says American culture has adopted the myth that Asians are smarter and harder-working than other minorities. </p>

<p>“It’s become a U.S.-based ideology, popular from the 1960s onward, that Asian-Americans are smarter, and should be doing well whether at school or work.”

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<p>Reactions? Opinions?</p>

[Christcorp]

<p>Depends 1st on what you consider “Asian-American”. I consider someone to be “Asian-American” if they were born in Asia and immigrated to the United States. If they were born in the United States, then I consider them just Americans; who happen to have relatives at one time that were born in Asia. Just like I am an American, who happens to have relatives that were born in Italy and Germany. But I don’t consider myself an Italian-American or German-American. I consider most blacks as just Americans who happen to have relatives at one time that were born in Africa. I don’t bring this up to get into a political correctness argument. That’s a futile argument. I bring this up for a very legitimate reason.</p>

<p>If they are truly an “Asian-American” who was born in Asia and moved to the United States, then there are definite cultural differences that they have had to deal with and try to overcome. Stereotypes of their intelligence are definitely one of them. There are a lot of pressures these stereotypes put on a person. Plus just trying to fit in socially. Culture shock is hard. Many of us have lived overseas, but it was usually on a temporary basis. Immigrating to the United States is much more difficult. It is permanent. You’ve left family, friends, and familiar lifestyles.</p>

<p>If these women are truly Americans, then they have been dealing with these stereotypes and such since the day they were born. As such, there is a totally different level of acclimation that they have gone through. It’s been a gradual social influence that they have gone through for 15-20 years. Of course, if their family is putting the pressure on them because they believe they need to prove themselves, then that definitely will affect this woman’s perspective on life. But I believe that it is totally different between an “Asian-American” who was born in Asia and moves to the United States and an American woman who was born and raised in the United States; went to school here; and assimilated along with every other child. Each person; whether they are of European decent, African decent, Asian, Hispanic, middle eastern, etc… decent will have their own difficulties socially. These difficulties will be different from someone native to a different country who immigrated here and is dealing with different cultures and norms. Families; especially 1st generation families most definitely will influence the level of adapting, but it’s different if you were born an American and had other influences outside of the home such as school, friends, and the rest of society. </p>

<p>I didn’t get enough from the article to say conclusively that there is any definitive reasons for the high suicide rates. There are a lot of theories, but I don’t think it has been studied in depth enough to say conclusively why.</p>

[chinaman]

<p>I agree this much pushing is bad act by asian parents if they push their kids to brink of sucide. Afterall what is the use of career if one can not enjoylife.</p>

<p>But it pale’scompare toparents who give birth to their kids and then do not do parenting. The bad parents expose to drugs, irresposnibilty, and then are not there when kids need mental support. They arein either jail or on drugs or doing something that does not help the child…</p>

<p>Tell me which is worse off a parents who abdicate their resposnibilty as a parent and do not even provide basic needs to grow up or parents who tell thier kids that only working harder can get out of poverty. I think the parents who left their kids without providing basic neceesties. BUt liberal media somehow ignore others nad goes after what is working.</p>

[Stellena]

<p>Chinaman, I completely agree.</p>

<p>I also think the previous post was written by a person lacking in the sociological knowledge of immigrants and how they form communities, and often can not, or choose not to assimilate for several generations.</p>

[Christcorp]

<p>I am very knowledgeable with immigrants and how they form communities and their assimilation. My parents are 1st generation American and I was brought up in an “Ethnic” neighborhood. I never dismissed the possibility of the parents and their influence. I specifically mentioned that. But I also mentioned that it is different had she been born her with ADDITIONAL outside influences such as school, friends, TV, etc… as compared to if she herself had been born in Asia and moved here and is dealing with the additional stresses of culture differences as well as all the things she gave up. Read more critically and you would have noticed that. </p>

<p>Plus, I don’t think that most people reading this thread have direct knowledge of immigrants and their communities. I didn’t include that in my post or questioning because I thought it was more relevant to find out more about the women in question and the study. But, being you did bring up the question, yes, I am very knowledgeable of immigrants and their communities; as well as the many different sub cultures they go through during the assimilation process. And it probably didn’t hurt being born and raised in the New York City area when this is a very common cultural norm.</p>

[natmicstef]

<p>Actually I think being born in America of two immigrant parents is even harder because you grow up in two different worlds…the one at home and the one at school…you can never be like your American friends whereas born elsewhere and arriving here, you have already been influenced by your own culture and are more likely to continue within it and not be torn between them.</p>

[RODS1990]

<p>When people choose to immigrate to America, they have already taken the first step away from their culture of origin. No matter how closely they try to adhere to it, things will NOT be the same! When the immigrant parents put excess pressure on their American-born children to adhere to the parents’ native culture instead of accepting the fact that assimilation into the mainstream American culture is only a matter of time, their kids do end up getting caught up in two different worlds, sometimes leading to tragic outcomes. I myself have made it clear to my kids that I’d rather have them being “average C students” rather than “dead A students”.</p>

[chocoholic]

<p>No numbers are quoted in this article, so to say that a certain group has the highest suicide rate is not meaningful if rates for other races are 0.2%, 0.3% and 0.4% and then the Asian suicide rate is 0.5%.</p>

<p>Anyone have any statistics?</p>

<p>In our town, in the past 12 years there have been 2 student suicides, both white males, and 5 adult suicides, all white males. And there is a very strong Asian population here.</p>

[Keshira]

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Noh added that simply being a minority can also lead to depression. </p>

<p>“My sister had a really low self-image. She thought of herself as ugly,” she says. “We grew up in Houston in the '70s and '80s, and at that time in school there were very few Asian faces. The standard of beauty she wanted to emulate was white women.” In college, Noh’s sister had plastic surgery to make her eyes and nose appear more European-looking.

Why doesn’t a quoted message count as a 10 characters? <em>confused</em></p>

[k_amp_s]

<p>Things are very different for Asian-Americans who are 3rd, 4th or 5th+ gen as opposed to those who are 1.5 or 2nd gen (who face the pressure to succeed academically as do children of immigrants from all over the world - in particular, from Africa and Eastern Europe).</p>

<p>In addition to the pressure to succeed academically (in order to justify the parents’ sacrifice and/or public expectation to live up to the “model minority” stereotype), another major factor is low self-esteem due to not fitting the American ideal w/ regard to female beauty (for instance, Asian-American females have a high rate of eating disorders).</p>

[Keshira]

<p>Eating disorders? Really? That’s surprising, considering that Asians are genetically much more slender than any other race. I was thinking more facial features/ skin color…</p>

[k_amp_s]

<p>^ Well, there is also that - tho, the issues for Asian-Americans are quite distinct from that of Asians in Asia.</p>

<p>For instance, in (East) Asia - there is a preference for light skin which has little to do w/ caucasians (NE Asians have a skin tone which is not that different from caucasians) - but w/ the traditional view that a lighter hue signifies upper class (i.e. - not having to work in the fields).</p>

<p>Otoh, Asian-Americans want to be like their peers and have want to bake in the sun to get that “bronzed”-look.</p>

<p>In NE Asia - females get the double-eyelid procedure to look like Asians who have the natural double fold (which, btw, is different from the caucasian fold) - esp. since most of the female celebs have them.</p>

<p>However, in the US and Canada, due to the lack of images of such Asians and the preponderance of stereotypical images of Asians, many Asian-Am females who opt to get the procedure so so b/c it makes them look less stereotypically “Asian”.</p>

<p>As for body shape - there are a good no. of NE Asians who have “thicker bones” and decades ago (before Hollywood films started to be imported en masse), the idealized female shape was more curvaceous.</p>

<p>Since then - Asians in Asia have adopted the slim Western ideal and if anything, made it even more extreme.</p>

<p>And we are also starting to see this in the parts of Africa which have increasing exposure to Western media - where young women/girls no longer opt for the traditional “fuller” body-types and instead, want to look like the foreign models/actresses.</p>

[Columbia_Student]

<p>Every year the same misleading article is posted over and over again.</p>

[sunshadow]

<p>I do know that approximately 85% of suicides are male (not talking any specific race here.) This info was given to me in grad school for counseling psychology. The prevailing reason is that women are more inclined to discuss their feelings, while men are not - so they hold it inside until they explode.</p>

<p>I also remember a professor telling me that he would never make it as a psychologist in Asia, as they tend to look down upon any type of “therapy” as a weakness, and rarely does anyone ever go to a shrink. You would have a hard time finding a psychologist in Asia. I welcome anyone to refute this info, this was given to me 15 years ago so this may have changed…</p>

[Keshira]

<p>My dad is a psychologist in Asia! :)</p>