Is Ethnic Identity a Buffer? Exploring the Relations Between Racial Microaggressions and Depressive Symptoms Among Asian American Individuals

Background and Purpose: This study tries to investigate the impact of racial microaggressions on Asian American college students’ mental health status, and the protective role of ethnic identity. Researchers hypothesized that students who experience more racial microaggressions will have higher depressive symptoms. Another hypothesis was that Asian American students with higher ethnic identity will have lower depressive symptoms even if they experience racial microaggressions.

Methods: We randomly sampled students of color during the 2011-2012 academic year in a predominantly White university. Among them, 353 Asian American students’ responses are extracted for the current study. 54.1% of the sample was male students, and the other 45.3% were female. Average age was 21.96 years old. 36.8% were undergraduate students and 19.6% were graduate students. On average, participants have lived in the U.S. for 17.66 years and identified themselves to be domestic students. After taking care of missing values by multiple imputation, Pearson correlation and a step-wise Hierarchical multiple regression were conducted.

Results: There was a significant relationship between racial microaggressions and depressive symptoms. In addition, there was a significant moderating effect of ethnic identity in the relationship between racial microaggressions and depressive symptoms. However, ethnic identity itself did not predict the depressive symptoms among participants.

Conclusion and Implications: Findings from our study indicates that having an achieved ethnic identity works as a protective factor against the detrimental effects of racial microaggressions. Since the previous and current study’s findings are consistent that Asian American students’ mental health status have vulnerabilities due to detrimental effects of racial microaggressions, it calls for social workers’ continued attention. One of the social work practice implications that can be drawn from the current study is to provide safe space for Asian American college students. A lot of the students in the sample answered that they were feeling excluded by others on the campus or felt invisible because of their race. Providing safe spaces in the campus such as Asian American cultural centers, counseling center, International students’ office, or Asian students’ organizations will be helpful for them to feel welcomed and included in the campus community.