Discrimination and racial socialization on Asian American parent and youth mental health

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The United States does not have sufficient science to mount an evidence-based response to combat the health detriments of present-day anti-Asian American (AA) hate. AA parents and children are struggling with a deeply troubling new sociopolitical context, a context with unprecedented levels of anti-Asian hate and violence fueled by references to COVID-19 as the “China virus.” Physical assaults against AAs skyrocketed by 145% in 2020 and have spiked to 164% in the first quarter of 2021. Among AA youth, 80% report being bullied or verbally harassed and 24% reported being shunned. Our evidence base for how racism impacts AA mental health under “normal” circumstances is insufficient and woefully inadequate. This R01 fills a critical gap in the science of how discrimination affects AA adolescent mental health, how adolescents respond to racial discrimination, and the agents involved in racial socialization processes involving AA adolescents. There are no longitudinal studies that investigate the effects of racial discrimination on AA adolescent mental health while also incorporating novel observational methods to determine how parents, peers, and social media are racial socializing AA adolescents. This project will follow 350 Chinese American adolescents (12-15 years), their Chinese heritage parent, and a peer to investigate the effects of discrimination experiences, discrimination responses, and racial socialization processes on adolescent mental health (depression, anxiety, suicidality) and on chronic stress (hair cortisol) over three timepoints. The long-term objective is to develop a biomedical evidence base focused on how parents, peers and social media can be leveraged to mitigate the negative health consequences of discrimination. Our multi-method approach (observation, survey, interview, biomarker) investigates the following aims: Aim 1. To assess how racial discrimination is associated with Chinese American adolescent (a) mental health (depression, anxiety, suicidality) and (b) biomarkers of chronic stress (hair cortisol) over three years. Aim 2. To determine how adolescent characteristics (internalization of the model minority myth, ethnic identity) moderate the association between discrimination and mental health/chronic stress. Aim 3. To (a) understand how parent characteristics (racial socialization, mental health, ethnic identity), moderate the association between adolescent discrimination and adolescent mental health/chronic stress (hair cortisol). We also consider “upwards socialization”; how adolescents are active agents in their own socialization and the socialization of those around them. Discrimination during adolescence has especially pernicious effects on concurrent and downstream adult health and understanding AA adolescent discrimination will help identify those at risk for problematic mental health. This study will inform urgently needed individual-, family- and peer-based interventions to address mental health for AA adolescents who are facing unprecedented risks to mental health at this time.