Risk of Racial Discrimination and Protection of Ethnic Identity: Correlates and Predictors of Depressive Symptoms Among Korean American Adolescents

Background and Purpose: The experience of racial discrimination is still prevalent among ethnic minorities in the United States but it is only within the last decade that research started to investigate the negative impact of discrimination on mental health (e.g., Kessler et al., 1999). However, the discrimination against Asian Americans is considered somehow less serious than among other ethnic minority groups, typically masked by the pervasive model minority stereotype (Lee, 2002). The racial stereotype against Asian Americans has numerous negative consequences. For example, it discouraged the research efforts to empirically document the relationship between the discrimination and mental health problems among the group. In fact, data shows Asian American youths report experiencing an extensive scope and significant level of discrimination (Alvarez and Helms, 2001). In addition, research typically aggregates all Asian Americans, which seriously limits the better understanding of Asian subgroups that differ in the history, language and cultural heritages (Choi, 2008). Despite the racial discrimination and other structural barriers, many ethnic and racial minorities adapt and succeed in life, showing a high degree of resilience (Lee, 2003). Among a variety of coping strategies, a strong sense of ethnic identity has emerged as a critical psychological resource that protects youth from risks such as racial discrimination. This study aims to empirically document the relationship between the racial discrimination perceived by Korean American adolescents and their mental health outcomes, specifically depressive symptoms. This paper also assessed the relationship between ethnic identity and depressive symptoms.

Methods: We used the data from the Korean American Families (KAF) Project. The KAF Project surveyed Korean American adolescents in middle school and their parents living in Chicago and surrounding areas in 2007 and 2008 with a total sample size of 657. The current analyses used data from youths only. A total 220 adolescents (115 boys and 105 girls) were interviewed with an average age of 12.97 (SD = 1.001) at the time of the first interview.

Results: Preliminary analyses indicated perceived discrimination and ethnic identity are important predictors of depressive symptoms for Korean American adolescents. Specifically, when adolescents report higher level of racial discrimination, they were more likely to report depressive symptoms. This study also found ethnic identity negatively predicted depressive symptoms. Age, gender, and socioeconomic status were accounted for in the analyses. Additional analyses are to be conducted using the Time 2 data to establish the time order. The similar regression models will be run with the outcome from the Time 2 dataset. In addition, the earlier level of problems is one of the strongest predictors of later problems. Thus, the level of depressive symptoms in Time 1 will be considered to show whether perceived racial discrimination and ethnic identity remain significant for depressive symptoms, above and beyond the effect of the prior level.

Conclusions and Implications: The findings challenge the myth that Asian American youth experience little discrimination. Also, the results highlight the importance of targeting perceived discrimination and ethnic identity in working with Korean American youth and in improving their mental health.