TY - JOUR
T1 - COVID-19 Racism and Chinese American Families’ Mental Health
T2 - A Comparison between 2020 and 2021
AU - Cheah, Charissa S.L.
AU - Ren, Huiguang
AU - Zong, Xiaoli
AU - Wang, Cixin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.
PY - 2023/4
Y1 - 2023/4
N2 - This study compared rates of multiple forms of COVID-19 racism-related discrimination experiences, fear/worries, and their associations with mental health indices among Chinese American parents and youth between 2020 and 2021. Chinese American parents of 4- to 18-year-old children and a subsample of their 10- to 18-year-old adolescents completed surveys in 2020 and 2021. A high percentage of Chinese American parents and their children continued to experience or witness anti-Chinese/Asian racism both online and in person in 2021. Parents and youth experienced less vicarious discrimination in person but more direct discrimination (both online and in person) and reported poorer mental health in 2021 than in 2020. Associations with mental health were stronger in 2021 than in 2020 for parents’ and/or youth’s vicarious discrimination experiences, perceptions of Sinophobia, and government-related worries, but weaker only for parents’ direct discrimination experiences. The spillover effect from parents’ vicarious discrimination experiences and Sinophobia perceptions to all youth mental health indices were stronger in 2021 than in 2020. Chinese American families experienced high rates of racial discrimination across multiple dimensions, and the detrimental impacts on their mental health were still salient in the second year of the pandemic. Vicarious and collective racism may have even stronger negative impacts on mental health and well-being later in the pandemic. Decreasing health disparities for Chinese Americans and other communities of color requires extensive, long-term national efforts to eliminate structural aspects of racism.
AB - This study compared rates of multiple forms of COVID-19 racism-related discrimination experiences, fear/worries, and their associations with mental health indices among Chinese American parents and youth between 2020 and 2021. Chinese American parents of 4- to 18-year-old children and a subsample of their 10- to 18-year-old adolescents completed surveys in 2020 and 2021. A high percentage of Chinese American parents and their children continued to experience or witness anti-Chinese/Asian racism both online and in person in 2021. Parents and youth experienced less vicarious discrimination in person but more direct discrimination (both online and in person) and reported poorer mental health in 2021 than in 2020. Associations with mental health were stronger in 2021 than in 2020 for parents’ and/or youth’s vicarious discrimination experiences, perceptions of Sinophobia, and government-related worries, but weaker only for parents’ direct discrimination experiences. The spillover effect from parents’ vicarious discrimination experiences and Sinophobia perceptions to all youth mental health indices were stronger in 2021 than in 2020. Chinese American families experienced high rates of racial discrimination across multiple dimensions, and the detrimental impacts on their mental health were still salient in the second year of the pandemic. Vicarious and collective racism may have even stronger negative impacts on mental health and well-being later in the pandemic. Decreasing health disparities for Chinese Americans and other communities of color requires extensive, long-term national efforts to eliminate structural aspects of racism.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Chinese American parents and youth
KW - cumulative impacts
KW - mental health
KW - multiple forms of racism
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85153932586
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph20085437
DO - 10.3390/ijerph20085437
M3 - 文章
C2 - 37107719
AN - SCOPUS:85153932586
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 20
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
IS - 8
M1 - 5437
ER -
