Impact of COVID-19 discrimination fear on psychological distress among East Asian college students: The moderating role of emotion regulation.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to heightened discrimination and xenophobia against Asian Americans in the United States. Mainstream media have reported that East Asian individuals are increasingly fearful of becoming victims of anti-Asian discrimination. However, few studies have examined the fear of experiencing discrimination, especially among youths and young adults. This study examined the extent to which East Asian first-year college students in the United States have experienced the fear of anti-Asian discrimination during the pandemic, its impact on anxiety and depressive symptoms, and whether emotion regulation strategies moderated the relationship between the fear of discrimination and psychological distress. Participants completed a cross-sectional online survey (n = 139; Mage = 17.90; SD = 0.62; 64% female) and reported high levels of fears, with 40.3% and 29.5% of the participants endorsing “quite a bit” or “extremely” on worries about being harassed or not feeling physically safe due to COVID-19, respectively. Female students endorsed higher levels of fear than male students. We found that cognitive reappraisal moderated the relations between the fear of discrimination and depressive symptoms, such that higher levels of cognitive reappraisal buffered the detrimental effects of this fear on depressive symptoms. Similarly, emotion suppression moderated the relations between the fear of discrimination and distress, such that higher levels of emotion suppression were associated with lower levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. These results highlight the need for university administrators and faculty to address East Asian first-year college students’ high levels of fears related to experiencing anti-Asian discrimination during the pandemic.

Moderating the link between discrimination and adverse mental health outcomes: Examining the protective effects of cognitive flexibility and emotion regulation

“…Consistent with the previous literature [33-35], our findings highlighted the significance of ERD in explaining discrimination-related anxiety, suggesting the importance of implementing adaptive emotion regulation strategies for sexual and/or racial minority individuals. Past neuroimaging results revealed the neural correlates supporting the association between ERD and anxiety.…”

Coping, Racial Discrimination, and Psychological Distress Among Asian American Parents

“…Put another way, AA parents with high levels of discrimination fears for themselves and their family members are at increased risk for psychological distress. Our finding contributes to the smaller literature on the fear of discrimination (Teng et al, 2022; Yip et al, 2022), by showing that the fear of discrimination during COVID-19 is a related but distinct construct from racial discrimination, which is also a risk factor for anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, participants reported greater levels of discrimination fear ( M = 4.32, SD = 1.63) compared to experiences of discrimination ( M = 1.50, SD = 0.66).…”

“…Thus, similar to discrimination experiences, fear of discrimination can be conceptualized as a chronic stressor that places yet another burden on AAs during a time of heightened anti-Asian sentiment. Although recent literature has suggested that hypervigilance and fear of victimization substantially increased among AAs during the pandemic (Hahm et al, 2021), the research on this construct is still limited, with only a few studies highlighting the increased risk of mental health problems for AAs due to the fear of discrimination or victimization (Teng et al, 2022; Yip et al, 2022). Therefore, this study aimed to expand the literature by examining fear of racial discrimination related to COVID-19 as a separate construct from direct discrimination experiences.…”

The moderating role of emotion regulation strategies on Asian American parents’ discrimination experiences and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“…COVID-19 discrimination fear is defined as the fearful anticipation and expectation of discrimination (e.g., being harassed, not feeling safe in public) due to COVID-19-related concerns (i.e., potentially carrying the virus, being seen as Asian). Recent studies have found that COVID-19 discrimination fears were associated with higher psychological distress among Asian American parents (Huang & Tsai, 2023) and college students (Teng et al, 2023). Research has also found that the fear of potential racial discrimination is associated with greater depressive symptoms due to the uncertainty of social acceptance and the ambiguity regarding whether one is being treated unfairly (Noh et al, 2007).…”

“…In a study of Asian and Latinx college students, cognitive reappraisal was found to be a protective factor against the impact of racial discrimination on mental health, while expressive suppression was a risk factor that exacerbated the negative effects of racial discrimination (Juang et al, 2016). In another study of East Asian first-year college students, both cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression served as protective factors that buffered the negative effects of COVID-19 discrimination fear on mental health (Teng et al, 2023). Because existing research has identified the link between cognitive and psychological processes on one’s perception of and appraisal of racial discrimination (i.e., being vigilant or minimizing the experience of discrimination; Kaiser & Major, 2006), emotion regulation strategies may serve as helpful resources or tools for Asian Americans particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic with the rise of anti-Asian discrimination.…”