Chinese American Adolescents’ Experiences of COVID-19-Related Racial Discrimination and Anxiety: Person-Centered and Intersectional Approaches

The racialized COVID-19 pandemic has fueled historically rooted anti-Asian racism and xenophobia in the United States, especially against Chinese Americans, as the virus was first identified in Wuhan, China. Experiences of racism adversely impact the socioemotional adjustment of ethnic minoritized individuals, and adolescents may be particularly vulnerable due to their increasing understanding and awareness of race/ethnicity and racial discrimination, but still limited coping skills. Thus, it is crucial to examine how Chinese American adolescents are affected by heightened racial discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic and potential risk and resilience factors.

Our recent study published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence examined Chinese American adolescents’ experiences of different types of COVID-19-related racial discrimination in relation to their anxiety. We also explored the protective roles of adaptive cultural factors, specifically, their ethnic identity, bicultural identity integration, and behavioral acculturation.

One major strength of our study is that we adopted an intersectionality perspective to explore the unique experiences of Chinese American adolescent boys and girls shaped by the intersection between their identification with multiple social categories of ethnicity and gender, which reflect interlocking systems of oppression and inequity. Furthermore, Chinese American adolescents are not a homogenous group but characterized by potentially different combinations of adaptive cultural factors. To reveal this heterogeneity, we used a person-centered approach to identify different profiles of Chinese American adolescents based on their ethnic and bicultural identities and acculturation levels, and whether these profiles were related to adolescents’ demographic characteristics and how they were impacted by racial discrimination.

Method: Our participants were 213 Chinese American adolescents who were 10 to 18 years of age (49% were girls). Most adolescents were born in the United States (i.e. second-generation), resided in the Southern region of the United States (e.g., Maryland, Virginia), and from two-parent, middle-class families. Adolescents completed online surveys on their experiences between March 14th to May 31st, 2020.

Results: We identified three profiles of adolescents which were labeled bicultural, marginalized, and separated. Bicultural adolescents were the largest subgroup, characterized by behavioral participation in both their American and Chinese cultures, highly integrated bicultural identities, but a weak ethnic identity. This profile had the largest proportion of second-generation adolescents.

Bicultural adolescents were more likely to develop anxiety symptoms than marginalized adolescents when being targeted by direct experiencesof racial discrimination. Next, marginalized adolescents were characterized by behavioral disengagement from both their American and Chinese cultures, incompatible bicultural identities, and moderate identification with their ethnic group. This profile had the largest proportion of boys and reported the highest levels of anxiety across the three profiles. Marginalized adolescents were more likely to develop anxiety symptoms than bicultural adolescents when witnessing incidents of discrimination directed at other members of their ethnic group (vicarious racial discrimination).

Separated adolescents were characterized by behavioral participation primarily in the Chinese culture, incompatible bicultural identities, and strong identification with their ethnic group. This profile had the largest proportion of first-generation adolescents and reported the lowest family socioeconomic status and highest levels of direct experiences of racial discrimination. Girls in the Separated profile were also more likely to develop anxiety symptoms than boys in this profile when being targeted by direct racial discrimination, which may reflect these girls’ experiences of dual oppressions of race and gender.

Implications: Our findings revealed unique risk and resilience factors (e.g., a strong racial-ethnic identity, an integrated identification with and active participation in both the U.S. mainstream culture and one’s heritage culture) among Chinese American adolescents with distinct patterns of cultural adaption when faced with specific types of racial discrimination in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other protective factors have been reported here. Parents, practitioners, and policymakers should support Chinese American adolescents in fostering a strong sense of identification with their ethnic group while facilitating their participation in both the Chinese heritage culture and the U.S. mainstream culture. Guidance in negotiating an integrated identification to both mainstream and heritage cultural groups is also essential for their adjustment and coping with racial discrimination. 

Importantly, racism interacts with other systems of oppression to marginalize ethnic minority adolescents and pose substantial barriers to their thriving and success. Efforts to empower Chinese American adolescents in resisting the negative impacts of racial discrimination should utilize an intersectional lens to better understand their unique experiences that are shaped by their intersecting identities. In particular, intervention and prevention efforts should consider Chinese American adolescents’ ethnic minority status and culture-specific gender norms, expectations, and stereotypes in shaping their social contexts.

Finally, Chinese American adolescents’ racial discrimination experiences reflect broader structural and cultural racism that results in direct discriminatory behavior and attitudes. Thus, our findings also call for the need for systematic and institutional efforts to challenge racism and other systems of oppression that intersect to affect ethnic minority adolescents’ development.


 

Authors:

Xiaoli Zong is a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Developmental Psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her research interests focus on how cultural, contextual, and individual factors jointly and interactively impact parenting and child development.

 


Charissa S. L. Cheah, Ph.D.
is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Asian Studies Faculty Affiliate at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. As a cultural developmental scientist, Dr. Cheah utilizes mixed-method approaches to explore how individual characteristics, relationships, socialization agents, and contexts interact to influence social-emotional, mental, and physical health in ethnic/racial/religious minoritized families.

 

Huiguang Ren is a doctoral student in Applied Developmental Psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His work focuses on how parenting and family dynamics are shaped by or interact with cultural, contextual, and individual factors in contributing to child development.


References:

Zong, X., Cheah, C.S.L, and Ren, H. (2021). Chinese American Adolescents’ Experiences of COVID-19-Related Racial Discrimination and Anxiety: Person-Centered and Intersectional Approaches. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 32, (2), 451-469.

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