Poster #93 - Using Social Media to Cope with Discrimination Among Asian and Asian American Emerging Adults

• In Event: Poster Session 08

Abstract

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Asians and Asian Americans have been encountering an increasing amount of racial-ethnic discrimination (The Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, n.d.). Asians and Asian Americans who experienced discrimination reported greater use of social media, suggesting that social media may serve as a coping tool (Yang et al., 2020). However, the effectiveness of social media as a coping tool has not been properly explored. Grounded in the Multidimensional Model of Social Media Use (MMSMU; Yang et al., 2021), this study examined (1) how different social media coping activities were associated with Asian and Asian American emerging adults’ well-being, and (2) how the relationships were moderated by social support.

A total of 181 Asian and Asian American emerging adults (18- to 29-year-olds, Mage = 24.15, SD = 3.36; 53% female; 20.4% Chinese, 17.7% Filipino, 16.0% Indian) completed an online survey in April, 2022. Participants reported the frequency of engaging in various social media activities to cope with discrimination (i.e., social media coping, see more details below), perceived social support (Utz & Breuer, 2017; α = .93), and three well-being states: intrusion (i.e., unable to forget about the discriminatory incidents; Carter et al., 2013; α = .92), subjective well-being (Diener, 1984; α = .90), and positive emotions (Sherblom et al. 2022; α = .77). The social media coping scale was a 12-item scale created by the authors based on MMSMU (Yang et al., 2021). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on the social media coping scale. Afterwards, three regression models were tested: Controlling for age, gender, and frequency of experiencing discrimination, the three well-being variables were regressed on mean-centered social media coping activities, social support, and the moderation terms (social media coping X social support).

EFA suggested a 3-factor structure (after removing a cross-loaded item): χ2 (25) = 82.41, p < .001; CFI = .989; TLI = .976; SRMR = .028. The three factors were messaging, posting, and browsing (Table 1). Regression analyses (Table 2) showed that messaging was associated with greater intrusion (β = .16, p = .044); posting was associated with greater positive emotions (β = .27, p = .009); browsing was associated with greater intrusion (β = .31, p < .001) and lower subjective well-being (β = -.21, p = .026). Social support moderated one association: messaging was associated with greater intrusion among those with more social support (β = .18, p = .029).

This is the first study explicitly examining social media as a coping tool in the face of racial-ethnic discrimination. The study reveals that different social media coping activities have different well-being implications for Asian/Asian American emerging adults. While posting appears beneficial, messaging and browsing can backfire. Previous research showed that interactive use of social media (e.g., messaging) was related to better well-being (Manago et al., 2020; Neubaum & Kramer, 2015), but our study suggests that messaging about discrimination may be a unique communication context in which co-rumination can take place (authors, under review), making the activity more detrimental than beneficial.

Authors

• Chia-Chen Yang, Oklahoma State University - Stillwater
  Presenting Author

• Jiun-Yi Tsai, Northern Arizona University