Hmong Women Issues: Identity and Mental Health

Abstract

This mixed-method research investigated perceptions, behaviors, and mental health issues of Hmong women in the United States. Thirty-eight Hmong women ranging in age from 18 to 92 were given the Perception and Reported Behavior Survey and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25. Five of the women were further interviewed with a semi-structured interview. One of the main goals was to examine associations among mental health, perceptions, behaviors, and demographic variables. A second main goal of the study was to examine whether perceptions of the participants were similar to their reported behaviors. Lastly, another main goal was to obtain information on Hmong women's identity formation.

The Mantel-Haenszel Chi-Square Test was utilized to capture associations among the variables, and descriptive statistics were utilized to determine whether perceptions were congruent with behaviors. Data analysis yielded some associations among mental health, perceptions, behaviors, and demographic variables, using an alpha level of .05. Perception of who should be more respected and behaviors to better one's life were found to be associated with anxiety. Perceptions of who should be more respected, women's role in voicing concerns, education, maintaining cultural practices, and educational level (behavior) were found to be associated with depression. The number of years in the United States was found to be associated with educational level. The number of years spent in Laos or Thailand was associated with perceptions of who should be respected, keeping cultural practices and educational level (behavior). Descriptive statistics showed that many of the participants behave in ways that are different from their perceptions. For example, only 39 percent of the participants behave similarly to their perceptions of women's role in the home.

The triangulation process was utilized to merge the different findings to create a Hmong women identity model. Some of the emergent themes utilized to create the model are: domestic chores are allocated to women, importance of respect for husband, integration of cultural beliefs, fulfillment of traditional expectations, women duel role expectations, education as seeing, and lack of voice and recognition.