Asian Pacific Islander Desi American university student mental health: a narrative review focused on social determinants of mental health.

Objective

Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) university students face unique mental health challenges, including disproportionately low rates of mental health service utilization compared to all other racial/ethnic groups. Despite increasing recognition of APIDA students' mental health needs, the underlying contributors to mental health disparities for these students are poorly understood. This narrative review summarizes the APIDA university student mental health literature from the last decade, focusing on social and structural contributors to students' mental health outcomes.

Methods

We searched PubMed for research articles published between 2015-2025 on APIDA university student mental health.

Results

The first subsection reviews the latest prevalence data and discusses the issues of underdiagnosis and disaggregation of data; the second focuses on social determinants of APIDA students' underutilization of mental health services; the final subsection focuses on the impact of large-scale sociocultural factors, including racial discrimination, acculturation/enculturation, and the model minority myth.

Conclusion

APIDA students face significant barriers to care and concerning rates of psychological distress and mental illness. The article concludes with future directions for APIDA student mental health research and intervention.