DOES PAIN INTENSITY AND PAIN TOLERANCE INFLUENCE ONE’S WILLINGNESS TO SEE A COUNSELOR IN ASIAN AMERICANS?

Abstract

The Asian American population continues to underutilize psychological services. This study examined whether pain tolerance and pain intensity played a role in the help-seeking process for Asian American individuals. Moderated mediation was tested to explore whether the relationship between psychological distress and willingness to see a counselor was mediated by pain tolerance and pain intensity, separately; and moderated by Asian American values. Moderation with two moderators was tested with Asian American values and pain tolerance or pain intensity, separately, as two moderators in the relationship between psychological distress and willingness to see a counselor. Moderated mediation and moderation with two moderators were tested using the bias-corrected bootstrapping confidence interval method. There was no evidence to indicate that pain intensity or pain tolerance acted as mediators between the relationship between psychological distress and willingness to see a counselor. However, pain intensity was found to moderate the relationship between psychological distress and willingness to see a counselor. Post hoc analyses were conducted to test specific subscales (depressive symptoms, emotional self-control, willingness to see a counselor for personal problems) and gender differences. Pain tolerance moderated the relationship between depressive symptoms and willingness to see a counselor for personal problems for women. Emotional self-control moderated the relationship between depressive symptoms and willingness to see a counselor for personal problems in the full sample and male sample.