Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chun-Po Chuang
San Francisco, California
2009
Summary
seeking out help for their children’s special needs, this study seeks to give insight to help
givers (those professionals who provide special needs services) by elucidating the
influence behind what may sometimes seem like elusive and unexplainable behavior on
the part of the Chinese-American help seekers. In doing so, this study also hopes to help
answer the question of what help-seeking behaviors are exhibited by the Chinese-
American help seekers. Essentially, this study aims to provide detailed and qualitative
Bronfenbrenner (1979, 2005), the researcher proposed that there are five levels of
subsystems that influence people’s behaviors and adaptation. These include the
space exosystem, the cultural collective macrosystem, and the historical time
chronosystem. The assumption in this research was that even though Chinese-American
Help-Seeking Behaviors 2
families are living in Western society and participating in American social welfare, their
help-seeking behaviors are affected not only by practical situations that they meet in
their daily life, but also by cultural beliefs that they practice. Therefore, the influence of
both deeply cultural factors and practical social factors should be represented on their
historical trends that have led to the diverse Chinese-American population present today
(Bay Area Census Listserv, 2003; U.S. Census Bureau, 2008), this study also pre-
distinct from other American inhabitants’ experiences. This supposition motivates the
research to provide a unique and vital cultural impression into the special needs services
families living in the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. The
researcher conducted and recorded in-depth interviews with seven participants from five
unrelated families. Field notes were taken during observation of familial interaction to
supplement interview data. During data collection and data analysis, under the
assumption of the ecological system framework, the researcher carefully compared the
narratives of each participant. This study utilized an inferential qualitative analysis of the
analysis was applied to the formerly extracted influences on behavior to reveal trends in
“Marital relationship,” “Social support,” and “Saving face” and they exist along a
themes, it was found that their various influences on each individual, whether positive or
special needs help givers. Much as the nine influential themes exist on a broad spectrum,
so too do the two behavioral patterns; individual help-seeking behavior falls at indiscrete
what types of help-seeking behaviors were used among the first generation Chinese-
American families who have children with special needs in the San Francisco Bay Area
and what were the underlying motivations for these behaviors. Since data were collected
from seven family members from a representative sample, all of whom have rich
experiences and have been affected in some way by this issue of seeking help, the
findings can appropriately represent the common themes that most of these Chinese-
Help-Seeking Behaviors 4
American immigrant families who have children with special needs in the San Francisco
Bay Area face. These findings thus also produced implications for special needs service
Though the representative sample can be used to extrapolate that these nine
themes and two behavioral trends exist for the larger Chinese-American population as a
whole, this qualitative study should not be construed as providing correlational nor
causative factors for the studied behavior. Future studies may expand on this research
through quantitative analysis that may better answer correlational and causational
on the people involved. The spatial location of selected participants implies they are
subject to local San Franciscan policies, laws, services, and ecological systems and to
California state policies, laws, services, and ecological systems as well, which may very
well differ from other cities’ and states’ policies, laws, services, and ecological systems
with regard to special needs services. The chronological range of this study occurs at a
studies will certainly encounter participants immersed in a very different (bio-) psycho-
study. Other limitations of this study are due to the qualitative research design and
practice, despite efforts by the researcher to control various variables across participants
to ensure reliable and accurate data collection and thus provide dependable inferences.
Help-Seeking Behaviors 5
Firstly, regarding credibility of data collection, both the prolonged engagement and
persistent observation criteria were hard to perfectly meet during a short-term contact.
Even though the researcher has rich experiences in working with this family group and
also has volunteered at related Chinese-American associations in the Bay Areas, the
study was limited by a few variables. For examples, participants coming from different
sub-cultural backgrounds, the specific situational setting for each interview, and the
frequency of contact with each participant, were all factors that limited the data
was still limited in that it was unable to work with families not connected with
resources. Their considerations and patterns of help-seeking behaviors are worth further
although the researcher recruited from FCSN, most members were of Taiwan and
mainland China origin. There were few immigrants from Hong Kong, thus limiting the
Regardless of some limitations in this study, the findings are valuable for both
academic and practical fields. In terms of the academic implications, the findings could
presented results. Additional results might contribute to new hypotheses or theories and
behaviors and motivations, and equipping help-giving service providers with extended
feedback of sorts can hopefully bring improvement in service quality and, in doing so,
communities.
difficulties. And, both the characteristics of cooperation and altruism are a part of human
nature as well. It is difficult for one to live an entire lifetime alone, and these bumps in
the road are important for development and growth of one’s life. Based on our own
personal life difficulties, we are able to imagine others’ trials and to empathize with their
emotions, as well as to give people helping hands to pursue better lives each one hopes
for and truly wants. However, although we have the same human nature and capability
to help one another, our cultural diversity and varying social environments regularly
It is not an easy goal to have every service provider with cultural sensitivity
contact help seekers, but we can try to sustain this positive attitude with respect--a deep
respect to human nature, for everyone and oneself. As Carl Rogers (1995) reflected in
unconditional positive regard, are the core target of a therapist’s training. Yet, he also
mentions that the goal of empathy is hard to reach because it refers to a part of a
Help-Seeking Behaviors 7
person’s character. From the viewpoint of psychology we have understood that some
reasons for the difficulty might be damage to the ability related to the sense of subject
and cause the emotional and behavioral outcome as the people with autism do.
help seekers and their professional help givers. By creating a space for open
understanding, the two groups can hopefully collaborate and truly work to benefit the
child with special needs. As Harvey Milk said during the movement towards Gay Rights
And as Norman Maclean mentioned in his famous book, A River Runs Through It
(1976), “… but you can love completely without complete understanding (p.103).” With
hope and love, the service provider communities can all strive to make a difference in
the lives of these Chinese-American families, of these immigrant parents, and of these