Assessing for Schizophrenia in Asian Americans

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to identify and describe cultural issues related to assessment of Asian Americans with schizophrenia (AAS) and to make recommendations for testing. Specifically, we focus on diagnosis, presentation, and moderating variables known to have predictive validity for outcome and quality of life. This chapter is organized in the following sections: (1) presentation of schizophrenia in Asians and Asian Americans, (2) diagnostic assessment issues for treatment with a focus on test validity, and (3) assessment recommendations. We conclude with an illustrative case study. Within each section, we attempt to review the literature on Asian Americans and Asians and parse out diversity issues with individual ethnicities. Given the number of Asian ethnicities, our focus will be on the most common Asian ethnicities in the United States including Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian, Vietnamese, and other Southeast Asians, Korean, and Japanese. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)