Predictors of Chinese American Parents’ Ethnic-Racial Socialization Under Conditions of Social Identity Threat During COVID-19

• In Event: The impact of COVID-19 on ethnic-racial issues

Abstract

Chinese Americans have been the victims of anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic (Jeung et al., 2021) and experienced negative mental health consequences (Cheah et al., 2020). Chinese American parents may pass on racial-ethnic socialization (RES) messages that teach about their heritage culture to promote their children’s racial-ethnic identity and pride (Wang et al., 2020). To protect their children from racial victimization, however, Chinese American parents may instead encourage their children to conceal their Chinese connection, which can lead to poorer psychological outcomes (Ren et al., in press). The specific individual and contextual factors that contribute to Chinese Americans’ RES are not well understood, and even less is known about whether these processes vary across child developmental periods. Racial discrimination experiences may decrease Chinese American parents’ psychological well-being (Prime et al., 2020), and in turn negatively impact their RES practices (Umaña‐Taylor & Hill, 2020). Alternatively, having support from family may buffer parents’ psychological well-being against the detrimental effects of racial discrimination. Thus, the present study: (1) examined the mediating role of Chinese American parents’ psychological well-being in the associations between their COVID-19 racial discrimination experiences and RES practices, (2) assessed the moderating role of family support; and (3) explored potential developmental differences in these associations among parents of children versus adolescents.
Chinese American parents of 4-to-12-year-old children and 13-to-18-year-old adolescents reported their racial discrimination experiences (Yoo & Lee, 2005), psychological well-being (Ryff, 1995), maintenance of heritage culture (Juang et al., 2016) and concealing Chinese connection RES practices, and perceived family support (Zimet et al., 1990) (see Table 1 for the descriptive statistics).
Controlling for family SES, parent age and length of stay in the U.S., multiple group path analyses revealed that Chinese American parents’ racial discrimination experiences were negatively associated with their psychological well-being, which in turn was associated with lower levels of maintenance of heritage culture and higher levels of concealing Chinese connection RES practices (Figure 1). Family support significantly moderated the effect of racial discrimination, such that the negative effect of racial discrimination on psychological well-being decreased as the levels of family support increased.
Chinese American parents’ racial discrimination during COVID-19 was associated with poorer psychological well-being. Although positive ethnic identity has been found protect Chinese American youth from the harms of racial discrimination (Yip, 2018), parents with fewer psychological resources may engage in socialization that does not support their children’s development of cultural pride (Umaña‐Taylor & Hill, 2020) to protect their children from anti-Asian hate during COVID-19. Fortunately, emotional and instrumental assistance from family may ameliorate the detrimental effects of racial discrimination, as parents may feel a sense of security and learn coping skills (Mossakowski & Zhang, 2014). The similarities on all paths across the developmental age groups suggest a shared detrimental impact of racial discrimination on parents’ psychological well-being and RES practices, and the protective role of family support during this period of heightened Sinophobia. These findings can guide the refinement of our conceptual understanding of Asian American families’ RES and efforts to support these families.

Authors

• Hyun Su Cho, University of Maryland - Baltimore County
  Presenting Author

• Hatice Gursoy, University of Maryland - Baltimore County

• Charissa S. L. Cheah, University of Maryland - Baltimore County

• Xiaoli Zong, University of Maryland - Baltimore County

• Huiguang Ren, University of Maryland - Baltimore County