A culturally informed scoping review of Native Hawaiian mental health and emotional well-being literature

ABSTRACT

The need for culturally grounded research on Native Hawaiian (NH) mental health and psychological well-being has been discussed by practitioners and researchers for more than four decades. This study combines scoping review methodology with culturally informed inclusion criteria in order to identify and synthesize literature on NH mental health and psychological well-being that is grounded in NH understandings of well-being. A systematic search of peer-reviewed literature and doctoral dissertations that linked NH mental health and psychological well-being to physical, social, spiritual, or cultural factors produced 81 studies. Twenty-one studies that were methodologically framed in NH culture were then selected for data extraction. These studies emphasized the importance of family, spirituality, connection to place, and cultural identity for mental and emotional well-being, as well as the inclusion of culture in interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Native Hawaiians
• mental health
• psychological well-being
• culture

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge librarians Kapena Shim and Patricia Brandes at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Hamilton Library for their assistance in designing the search for this review.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Hawaiian words are not italicized in this manuscript, as italicized words are reserved for foreign languages, and the Hawaiian language is not a foreign language in Hawaiʻi.