Asian Women and Suicide tied to Model-Minority Stereotype
In the wake of the VT shooting last month, another news source has confirmed what some mental health activists have been saying for years–and that is that racism and sexism has significant mental health consequences for those most impacted. This week, CNN reported that pressure to fulfill the model-minority stereotype contributes to the startling rate of suicide attempts among Asian American women. This main character of the story professor Eliza Noh, who began researching suicide among Asian women after her sister took her life, explained:
In my study, the model minority pressure is a huge factor,” says Noh, who studied 41 Asian-American women who’d attempted or contemplated suicide. “Sometimes it’s very overt – parents say, ‘You must choose this major or this type of job’ or ‘You should not bring home As and Bs, only As,” she says. “And girls have to be the perfect mother and daughter and wife as well.” …