The Influence of Perceived Racial Discrimination on Depressive Symptoms and School Outcomes Among Asian American Adolescents—Korean, Cambodian, and Vietnamese

Purpose: Asian American adolescents typically receive more attention in terms of successful academic achievement as a “model minority,” but rarely regarding their difficulties and problems. Asian American adolescents show paradoxical and unique developmental outcomes—namely, poor psychological well-being despite fewer problem behaviors and better school outcomes. Racial discrimination might be one of the most important, but unexplored factors for explaining the unique pattern of developmental outcomes among Asian American adolescents. In addition, significant differences exist in youth outcomes across Asian subgroups. This study examines how perceived discrimination can influence depressive symptoms and school outcomes among subgroups of Asian American adolescents. Specifically, this study examines whether and how co-ethnic friendship, ethnic identity, and social support mediate the negative influence of perceived discrimination on depressive symptoms and school outcomes. This study also compares the hypothesized relationships across three Asian American subgroups: Cambodians, Koreans, and Vietnamese Americans.    

Methods: Two datasets were used; one from the Korean American Families(KAF) Project and the other from the Cross Cultural Families(CCF) Project. The KAF Project surveyed Korean American adolescents in middle school living in Chicago areas in 2007 and 2008(n=220). The CCF Project is a longitudinal study of the developmental trajectories of a panel of Cambodian(n=164) and Vietnamese(n=163) youth, which started in 2001 with a random sample of Vietnamese and Cambodian American children enrolled in grades 3 through 6 in the Seattle public school district. Youth data collected in 2004(wave 4) was used to match ages with the KAF samples. Path analysis was conducted using MPlus to test the hypothesized models of perceived discrimination’s influence on adolescents’ depressive symptoms and school outcomes (school misbehaviors and grades respectively) through the mediating variables (i.e., co-ethnic friendship, ethnic identity and social support).

Results: The path analyses showed the following results. First, perceived discrimination was an important and negative predictor of school outcomes for Koreans and Vietnamese, but not for Cambodians. Among Koreans, depressive symptoms mediated the impact of perceived discrimination on school misbehaviors and grades. However, among Vietnamese, social support mediated the impact of perceived discrimination but only on grades. Second, depressive symptoms directly predicted school outcomes for Koreans, but not for Vietnamese. For Cambodians, both depressive symptoms and social support showed direct effects on school outcomes. This may be an indication that managing depressive symptoms could improve school outcomes among Korean adolescents. Third, ethnic identity had a direct and negative effect on school misbehavior among Vietnamese, but not among Koreans and Cambodians.

Implications:  By investigating the interplay of various mediators between perceived discrimination and developmental outcomes, this study adds nuances on how perceived discrimination exert negative impact on children’s mental health and school outcomes. The findings also suggest that the impact of perceived discrimination and the pathways in which it influences developmental outcomes vary across Asian subgroups. The study results warrant additional investigation on the roles of depressive symptoms among Koreans and ethnic identity among Vietnamese on school outcomes. As a next step, the moderating role of ethnic identity is to be investigated between perceived discrimination and developmental outcomes.