Substance use risk among Asian American men: The role of gendered racism, internalization of western muscularity ideals, interpersonal and body shame, and drive for muscularity.

Abstract

We employed a culturally modified objectification framework to examine a culture-specific mechanism of risky compensatory substance use (alcohol, anabolic-androgenic steroids) associated with gendered racism (GR) among Asian American men (AAM). Using data from 424 AAM, structural equation modeling was conducted to examine our proposed model in which GR was hypothesized to predict substance use through three mediators: GR → internalization of Western muscularity ideals → shame (body-related and interpersonal) → drive for muscularity → substance use. Results suggested partial support of our proposed model. GR indirectly predicted substance use via both internalization-(GR → internalization → drive for muscularity → substance use) and shame-driven (GR → shame → drive for muscularity → substance use) pathways. Multigroup analysis demonstrated that our findings were held for the earlier generation (1st and 1.5 generation) AAM. For later generation (1.75, 2nd generation, and beyond) AAM, shame was not a significant mediator and GR was indirectly associated with substance use only through the internalization and drive for muscularity pathway. Implications for practice and research are discussed. Public Significance StatementAsian American men (AAM) may engage in risky alcohol use and steroid use to compensate for their experiences of GR that make them seen as less "manly" and emasculated. GR was found to drive AAM to internalize Western male appearance ideals that in turn increased their preoccupation with muscularity and engagement in alcohol and steroid use to express and align with White hegemonic masculinity norms in the society. Additionally, GR was also found to increase AAM's shame for being treated as falling short of society's expectations and body image ideals, which in turn also increased drive muscularity and compensatory substance use as means to relieve the shameful feelings.

Tripartite Influence Model

“…As we cannot know what causes this difference in internalization, we can only hypothesize that it may come from media pressure, specifically media content focused on muscular and athletic bodies. This notion should be examined in future research, as some research shows that high internalization of muscular/athletic ideal can encourage excessive physical activity, especially in men (e.g., Keum et al, 2022;Lee & Lee, 2020).…”

Asian American Men’s Gendered Racial Socialization and Fragmented Masculinity: Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis

“…We found that AAM are systematically denied access to acknowledgement, community, socioemotional support, and instrumental resources needed for autonomous masculine identity formation. The lack of affirmative socialization—including role models, constructive messages, and preparation for competently addressing gendered racist bias—was a systemic risk factor for engendering an inferior masculine identity (Keum et al, 2022) and compromising psychosocial health outcomes.…”

“…It is imperative to examine these trends in a culturally responsive manner (Wong et al, 2019) that centralizes the psychology of AAM and assesses operative, protective, and risk factors considering intersectional race-related stress and key lifespan sociocultural variables. AAM-focused psychological scholarship has indeed expanded (Iwamoto & Kaya, 2016) to encompass body image (Keum, 2016; Liao et al, 2020), gendered racism (Liu & Wong, 2018; Liu et al, 2018), interpersonal shame (Wong et al, 2014), and behavioral health outcomes (Keum & Choi, 2021; Keum et al, 2022). To augment this largely correlational and adult-focused literature, we sought to empirically derive a more comprehensive, developmentally informed, and unified model of AAM’s gendered racial socialization.…”

COVID-19 Racism, Depressive Symptoms, Drinking to Cope Motives, and Alcohol Use Severity Among Asian American Emerging Adults

“…Similarly, we encourage work that analyzes other empirically confirmed social-cognitive correlates of alcohol use severity—such as alcohol values and expectancies and peer influence ( Iwamoto et al, 2010 )—as well as substance use behavior of known public health import for Asian American subgroups, such as tobacco ( Lew & Tanjasiri, 2003 ; Rao et al, 2021 ). Finally, our framework should be expanded to test key cultural and intersectional variables ( Keum et al, 2022 ; Keum & Choi, 2021 )) germane to the link among COVID-19 racism and alcohol use outcomes, given that acculturative dynamics and gender appear to typify “high risk” drinkers among Asian American emerging adults ( Cook et al, 2015 ; Iwamoto et al, 2019 ).…”