Latino and Asian American populations are expanding at a rate far outstripping the development of the research capacity necessary to understand the nature of their risks for psychiatric disorders and respond to their service needs. This dramatic demographic shift raises questions whether mental health systems are ready to address the needs of these rapidly growing populations. This application seeks support to estimate prevalence and correlates of psychiatric disorders and mental health service use with nationwide Latino and Asian American samples. We propose to conduct a study, concomitantly with the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCSR) and the National Survey of African Americans, with 4,000 Latino respondents (1,500 Mexican Americans, 1,500 Puerto Ricans, and 1,000 Cubans), and 3,000 Asian Americans (1,500 Chinese and 1,500 Filipinos). The proposed study seeks to better understand the intra and inter group ethnic and racial differences linked to psychiatric disorders and service use. The study aims are: l) to estimate intra- and inter-group ethnic differences in the prevalence of specific psychiatric disorders, and in help seeking and utilization of mental health services in nationwide representative samples of Latinos and Asian Americans, 2) to explore the intra- and inter-group ethnic differences in the correlates of psychiatric disorders and the factors associated with help seeking and utilization of mental health services, 3) to compare the prevalence of specific psychiatric disorders, help seeking and utilization of mental health services of Latinos, Asian Americans, non Latino Whites, and African Americans; and 4) to generate nationally representative data for Latinos and Asian Americans in the United States in the year 2000 that will be used as part of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Mental Health 2000. Experience with the previous National Comorbidity Survey makes clear that the NCSR will not yield samples large enough to pursue the aims set out in this proposal. The desired target populations include US household residents ages 15-74. Two multistage probability samples, one for Latinos and one for Asian Americans will be developed. We anticipate that a significant number of Latino and Asian Americans selected for the sample will be non-English speakers. This combined study of Latino and Asian Americans will use identical survey methods and measures to compare the prevalence of mental disorders and the use of mental health services among ethnic subgroups. The proposed investigation intends to pool the resources and expertise of researchers familiar with Latinos and Asian Americans into a single comprehensive study team under the IRPG mechanism.
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