1. Mitigating the Detrimental Effect of Racial Discrimination: Social Support, Ethnic Identity & Racial/Ethnic Socialization in the Family
November 13, 2018
Michael M. Davis Lecture Series
The Center for Health Administration Studies (CHAS), UChicago
Yoonsun Choi, Ph.D., Associate Professor & Michael Park, Ph.D. Candidate,
School of Social Service Administration, UChicago
The study is supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD, R01 HD073200).

2. Asian American Paradox
Youth outcomes tend to co-occur.
Antisocial behaviors are positively correlated with mental distress, which also increases substance use. Youth mental distress are often expressed in acting out behaviors.
The developmental outcomes of Asian Americans are mixed with less externalizing problems (e.g., substance uses, antisocial behaviors), good grades, but high internalizing problems (e.g., mental distress).

3. Why?
Factors derived from race/ethnicity, culture and immigration may explain the paradox.
That is, the experience of growing up in an immigrant family & as a racial/ethnic minority may be related to the paradox.
Explicit and blatant racism triggers anger but implicit & structural racism produces mental distress.
The negative impact of racial discrimination is lasting.

4. Divided Socio-Political Climate
Race and immigration are at the center of politics today.
Surge in overt racism
Dramatic increase in hate crimes
White nationalism: From fringe to the center stage
Hostility, fear-mongering and xenophobia
Overt/covert legislative and judicial racism
Many thought that it is post-racial society.
Structural, implicit racism continues.
In fact, due to blatant and overt racism, structural & implicit racism are overlooked or downplayed.

5. Evidence of Perpetual Racism
Exacerbating social, economic & political inequality by race/ethnicity
Income gap is the largest among Asian Americans.
Continued disparity in health, mental health and educational gaps among children
Disproportionate representation of Black and Latinx in the justice system
Asian Americans remain invisible: “Asians don’t count.”
Filipino Americans: The invisible among the invisible
Espenshade & Radford (2009) “No longer separate, not yet equal”

6. Unique Positionality of Asian American
“Model Minority” & “Honorary Whites”
Problem free, hard working, self-care
This seemingly positive stereotype is coupled with negative ones.
“Perpetual Foreigner”
Regarded as a foreigner regardless of nativity and generation
“Caught in the Middle”
Middle-man minority theory (Min, 1996), racial triangulation theory (C.J. Kim, 1999)
Asian American youth report the highest rate of peer harassment, racial discrimination by both majority and other minority youth.

7. Mitigating the Detrimental Effect
Social support
Instrumental and emotional support
From family, peers, schools and community
Racial/ethnic socialization in the family
With a goal of strengthening ethnic identity/pride
Cultural socialization, promotion of mistrust & preparation of bias
Experience of racial discrimination influences racial/ethnic socialization in the family.

8. Filipino- vs. Korean Americans
Mixed pattern of acculturation among parents
Either end of acculturation spectrum among parents: English speaking, most acculturated Filipino parents (in regard to occupation, residential and ethnic identity) vs. limited-English speaking, least acculturated (almost separated) Korean parents
However, Filipino families uphold traditional familism and other traditional family values more so than Korean families (e.g., family obligation, gendered norms) (Choi et al., 2017).
Youth show more similarity than the parent generation. (Choi et al., 2018; under review)
Growing up Asian Americans with bicultural identity
Divergent and convergent developmental outcomes

9. Midwest Longitudinal Study of Asian American Families (ML-SAAF)
Midwest families with an adolescent child ages between 12 and 17 in 2014, whose mother is of Filipino and Korean heritage
Wave 1 in : N=1,580: 379 Filipino American youth & 377 parents (365 dyads), 410 Korean American youth and 414 parents (407 dyads), Wave 2 in 2016 (76% retention), Wave 3 in 2018 (86% of Wave 1 retention).
In Wave 1, in-person interview (84%) by bilingual interviewers; multilingual survey available but 8% of youth used heritage language versions. Self-admin in later waves.

10. Samples
Mean ages: (SD=1.89) for FA, (SD=1.91) for KA youth
About equal gender distribution in both groups
71% FA and 58.29% KA U.S.-born
Among foreign-born, average years of living in U.S. were 8.47 (SD=4.24) for FA, 8.13 (SD=4.28) for KA
Parent Participants:
Primary caretakers were mothers (92.02% FA, 95.65% KA), foreign-born (90.43% FA, 98.55% KA), living in US on average for years (SD=11.01) for FA, years (SD=8.53) for KA, college educated (88.56% FA, 83.09% KA), married (88.56% FA, 92.03% KA) and employed (87.23% FA, 64.69% KA mothers)

11. Two Sets of Analyses
How different types of social support (i.e., emotional and instrumental) moderate the negative impact of perceived racial discrimination on Asian American youth development
Mediating process of racial/ethnic socialization between the experience of racial discrimination and bicultural identities among Asian American youth

12. Study 1: Moderation by Social Support
Authors: Park, M., Choi, Y., Henly, J. & Noh, S.
Examines (1) the relationship between racial discrimination and youth developmental outcomes (GPA and depressive symptoms), (2) whether the relationship is moderated by two distinct types of social support and (3) whether the moderating effect vary by nativity (a place of birth)

13. Social support
Social support refers to a broad range of resources that are transferred across social relationships (Thoits, 2011).
Empirical evidence shows that social support can enhance, directly or by buffering, youth development.

14. Types of Social support
Emotional support may be sought by distressed individuals to cope with negative feelings.
Instrumental support may be sought by individuals in need of tangible assistance (such as financial support) with a stressful situation.

15. Moderating Effects
Problem-focused coping vs. emotion-focused coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984)
Coping research has shown that problem-focused coping was generally more adaptive, while emotion-focused coping is more likely to be maladaptive on an array of outcomes.
This may be more complex than we think (Lazarus & Folkman, 1988).
The stress-alleviating effect of problem-focused coping was amplified among the more acculturated (Noh and Kaspar, 2003).
Emotion-based coping had a stress-alleviating effect among individuals with high support from co-ethnic group.

16. Gaps in Literature
The expansive social support literature has largely neglected Asian American youth.
Limited investigation on differential roles of emotional and instrumental support in stress-moderating relationships
Limited attention on whether and how nativity status may shape the operation of social support as a coping resource.

17. Analyses Youth outcomes: Depressive symptoms and GPA
Adversity: Perceived racial discrimination
Social support: Emotional vs. instrumental
Concurrent, longitudinal models
Concurrent: W1 predictors regressed on W1 outcomes
Longitudinal: W1 predictors regressed on W2 outcomes
Longitudinal accounting for prior outcome: W1 predictors + W1 outcomes regressed on W2 outcomes

18. Hierarchical Regression
Step 1 [Demographics (Ethnicity, nativity, gender, household income, age) + racial discrimination + emotional support + instrumental support]
Step 2 (Model 1 + Racial discrimination X two types of social support)
Step 3 (Model 2 + Racial discrimination X two types of social support X nativity)

19. Hierarchical Regression (Main Effects)

20. Hierarchical Regression (Interactions)

21. Results (Main Effects)
Racial discrimination predicts more depressive symptoms and lower GPA.
The negative impact is most evident on mental health, both concurrent and longitudinal. The impact remains after accounting for prior level of depressive symptoms.
Its impact is significant and concurrent on GPA.
Emotional and instrumental support reduces youth depressive symptoms, concurrently and/or longitudinally.

22. Results (Two-way Interactions)
The impact and direction of emotional and instrumental support vary by the level of racial discrimination.
Emotional support worsens the relationship between racial discrimination and depressive symptoms but instrumental support mitigates it.
Instrumental support alleviates the impact of racial discrimination on GPA. Emotional support did not show a significant buffering impact on GPA.

23. Results (Three-way Interactions)
Emotional support mitigates the negative impact of racial discrimination on GPA among foreign-born youth.
Instrumental support mitigates the negative impact of racial discrimination on GPA among U.S.-born youth

24. Results (Three-way Interaction) Emotional Support & GPA

25. Results (Three-way Interaction) Instrumental Support & GPA

26. Results (Three-way Interactions)

27. Highlights/Implications
Persistent & negative impact of perceived racial discrimination on youth development, especially on mental health
Social support is not universally positive but, rather, conditional depending on the types of social support and outcome.
Potential subgroup difference by nativity.
Additional analyses are being conducted by gender and ethnicity.

28. Study 2: Mediation of Racial/ethnic Socialization in the Family
Authors: Woo, B., Maglalang, D.D., Ko, S., Choi, Y., Park, M., Takeuchi, D.
Examines the mechanisms in which the experience of racial discrimination influences racial/ethnic socialization in the family, which may facilitate/hinder the development of bicultural identities
SEM analyses using the bootstrapping and ML with missing values approach
Wave 1 independent and mediating variables predicting Wave 2 youth bicultural identity; By ethnic groups

29. - Filipino Model Youth + Youth Ethnic Identity
Promotion of mistrust +
Youth Ethnic Identity
Youth R/E discrimination
Preparation of bias + - + +
Parental
Promotion of mistrust + +
Parental R/E discrimination
Preparation of bias
Youth American Identity + + +
Concern about children’s minority status
Covariates: wave 1 youth ethnic & American identity
wave 1 parental ethnic & American identity
youth sex and age, parental SES
Chi2 (55)=64.308, p>.05; RMSEA=0.021; CFI=0.980

30. Youth R/E discrimination +
Korean Model
Youth
Promotion of mistrust +
Youth Ethnic Identity
Youth R/E discrimination
Preparation of bias + + +
Parental
Promotion of mistrust +
Parental R/E discrimination +
Preparation of bias
Youth American Identity +
Concern about children’s minority status
Covariates: wave 1 youth ethnic & American identity
wave 1 parental ethnic & American identity
youth sex and age, parental SES
Chi2 (55)=56.159, p>.05; RMSEA=0.007; CFI=0.997

31. Results
Experiences of racial discrimination are fully mediated by racial/ethnic socialization.
Racial discrimination in Wave 1 did not predict bicultural identity in Wave 2 but was associated with racial/ethnic socialization in the family, which in turn longitudinally influenced ethnic identity (not American identity).
Subgroup differences
Racial discrimination was mediated, by increasing promotion of mistrust and concerns about minority status among Filipino families and increasing preparation for bias among Korean families.

32. Highlights/Implications
When parents experience racial discrimination, it reinforces a racial/ethnic socialization in the family.
However, the ways in which racial/ethnic socialization longitudinally influences ethnic identity vary across the subgroups.
Promotion of mistrust, relative to preparation for bias or increased concern about children’s minority status, may in fact weaken ethnic identity.