Masking as a Coping Mechanism in Asian American Students: Exploring Tensions Through an Arts-Based, Qualitative Approach

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Coping Mechanisms and Well-Being in Asian and Asian American Communities (Table 7)

Abstract

Asian American (AA) students face unique challenges as they straddle multiple cultures and expectations growing up in the US. Racial stereotypes, such as model minority myth and forever foreigner constructs, are internalized which can negatively impact students’ educational needs, mental health, and educational support. Additionally, AA experiences often reside outside of dominant racial discourse in education which can further a sense of otherness, invisibility, and shame. Using an arts-based, qualitative approach, we explore how two AA college students experienced these tensions within the educational context. Findings show that AA students enacted masking–a process of navigating the plurality of racialized expectations–as a coping and filtering mechanism which either concealed or revealed the ability to be their true selves.

Authors

• Eleanor Su-Keene, Texas A&M University

• Michelle Nguyen Kwok, Texas A&M University

• Jasmin Patron-Vargas, Texas A&M University