Abstract
Asian American cultures may hold culturally construed views of mental health and help-seeking that are contrary to Western, biomedical notions of mental health and treatment. Asian American young adults may learn culturally specific views of mental health and help-seeking through the family, which is the primary socialization context for children. Parental mental health socialization, a central mechanism through which parents transmit messages about mental health and help-seeking to children, is designed to shape the way Asian American young adults understand and respond to distress. This study developed and tested the Parental Mental Health Socialization - Parental Responses (PMHS-PR) scale, one of the first measures of parental processes of mental health socialization among a sample of 486 Asian American young adults. Using a split sample approach, exploratory factor analysis first determined the factor structure of the measure on Sample 1 (n = 243), followed by a confirmatory factor analysis on Sample 2 (n = 243). Correlations between derived factors with measures of stigma attitudes and mental health outcomes were examined. Results revealed a bifactor structure with one general factor of parental mental health socialization and five specific factors: Parental Stigma Toward Youth, Parental Supportiveness, Enduring and Overcoming Distress, Hiding Mental Health from Others, and Parental Silence. The PMHS-PR showed good internal consistency reliability and concurrent validity with depression and somatic symptoms and stigma attitudes towards mental illness. Findings indicate that the PMHS-PR is a multidimensional, psychometrically sound scale that measures broadband and narrowband dimensions of parent mental health socialization among Asian Americans that are linked to salient young adult mental health outcomes. This signals its importance in identifying familial influences that centrally shape mental health attitudes and help-seeking among Asian American young adults. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10826-026-03259-4.