Historically, multicultural psychology has devoted far more sustained attention to Latinx, Asian American, Black/African American, and Native American/Indigenous populations than to Pasifika/Pacific Islander communities. Although this body of scholarship has made important contributions, Pasifika populations have remained comparatively underrepresented in mainstream psychological research and in the empirical literature guiding mental health practice (Allen & Smith, 2015; Allen et al., 2022). Recent scholarship continues to underscore this problem, noting that Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations are frequently rendered statistically and conceptually invisible through limited subgroup representation, inadequate disaggregation, and a broader lack of targeted research attention.
Although several important studies have examined Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders more broadly (e.g., McCubbin, 2006; McCubbin & Dang, 2010; McCubbin et al., 2007), there remains relatively little empirical work focused specifically on Pacific Islanders’ psychological wellbeing, help-seeking, and psychotherapy interventions both in the United States and internationally. This gap is especially significant given emerging evidence that Pacific Islander communities remain underserved by mental health systems, encounter culturally specific barriers to care, and continue to be misunderstood in both research and practice settings (Allen & Heppner, 2011; Allen et al., 2013; Allen et al., 2016; Allen et al., 2022; Cutrer-Párraga et al., 2024).
One persistent challenge is that Pacific Islanders have long been grouped with Asian Americans under umbrella categories such as API, AAPI, or AANHPI, despite being culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually, and religiously distinct. This practice of ethnic aggregation or “lumping” obscures meaningful within-group differences and can produce findings that are incomplete, misleading, or of limited clinical utility for Pacific Islander communities (Allen, Kim, Smith, & Hafoka, 2016). More recent work has reinforced the importance of disaggregated data, showing that aggregated approaches continue to mask disparities, flatten cultural distinctiveness, and weaken the relevance of research for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations (Allen et al., 2025).
For these reasons, research focused specifically on Pacific Islanders is not simply an extension of broader multicultural inquiry; it is a necessary corrective to a longstanding gap in psychological science. Such work can generate more accurate and culturally valid knowledge about Pacific Islander communities, clarify the psychological processes most relevant within Pasifika cultural contexts, and inform psychotherapy approaches that are more responsive to Pacific Islander values, relationships, spirituality, and lived experience (Allen et al., 2016; Allen et al., 2022; Cutrer-Párraga et al., 2024; McCubbin, 2006). In this way, Pacific Islander-focused research is essential for advancing both scientific precision and culturally grounded mental health care.
G. E. Kawika Allen, PhD