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COVID-19 online racial discrimination and Chinese-American youth’s anxiety: The moderating role of ethnic-racial identity

Fri, April 9, 4:20 to 5:50pm EDT (4:20 to 5:50pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Anti-Asian sentiment has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic (Gee et al., 2020), and Chinese-American youths report experiencing online racial discrimination (ORD) directed explicitly at them (i.e., direct ORD) and/or at same-race peers (i.e., vicarious ORD) in daily lives (Cheah et al., 2020). Both direct and vicarious ORD have been associated with youth’s increased anxiety symptoms by threatening individuals’ identity and foster internalization of negative messages about their ethnic group (Gee et al., 2007). Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) affirmation can be an important protective factor against the negative effect of ORD because positive feelings about their ethnic group can help minority youth maintain positive sense-of-selves and minimize their internalization of negative discriminatory messages (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2015). With more time spent at home due to social distancing regulations, differences in ERI-levels between parents and children may be an additional stressor, whereas parent-child ERI consistency can facilitate more a cohesive family environment and protect youth from ORD (Huq et al., 2016). Thus, we examined the moderating role of Chinese-American youth’s ERI and parent-child ERI discrepancies in the relation between ORD and their anxiety symptoms. We hypothesized that higher youth ERI and lower parent-child ERI discrepancies would buffer against the negative effect of both direct and vicarious ORD on youth’s anxiety symptoms.

Chinese-American youth (N=220, Mage=13.86, SD=2.52) reported their perceived direct and vicarious ORD (Tynes et al., 2010), ERI affirmation (EIS; Umaña-Taylor et al., 2004), and anxiety symptoms (GAD; Spitzer et al., 2006). Their parents (Mage=46.11, SD=5.20) reported their ERI affirmation (Table 1). We computed parent-child ERI discrepancy scores by subtracting youths’ ERI from parents’ ERI.

Controlling for child gender, age, and family SES, moderation analyses revealed significant interaction effects of vicarious ORD x youth’s ERI, and interaction effects of direct and vicarious ORD x parent-child discrepancies (Figure 1). Simple slopes analyses revealed that vicarious ORD predicted greater youth anxiety symptoms only when their ERI was low. Similarly, vicarious ORD predicted greater youth anxiety symptoms only when parent-child ERI discrepancies were high. Direct ORD predicted greater youth anxiety symptoms and the effect was stronger when parent-child ERI discrepancies were high.

Although witnessing racially derogatory messages about their ethnic group can threaten Chinese-American youth’s mental health, positive feelings and pride in their ethnic group can buffer against the detrimental effects of COVID-19 ORD by allowing youth to reject negative stereotypes and cope with negative emotions (Tynes et al., 2012). Furthermore, youth who feel more similarly about their ethnic group as their parents may be more likely to share their experiences of racism and discrimination and receive appropriate socialization messages and support from their parents (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2015). In contrast, greater ERI differences between youth and their parents can cause misunderstanding, create intergenerational conflicts, and lead to greater anxiety (Wang et al., 2012). Direct ORD may provoke greater anxiety regardless of the protective role of ERI and parent-child consistencies because the attack is more personalized (Tynes et al., 2008). Findings will be discussed considering the protective function of identity processes both at individual- and family-levels.

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