Model Minority Myth, School and Socio-Economic Achievement, and Mental Health of Filipino American and Korean American Youth

Purpose: Asian Americans are often labeled as a "model minority," characterized by high academic and socioeconomic success, commonly credited to cultural priorities on diligence, education, and a commitment to meritocratic ideals. Despite these stereotypes, as a minoritized group, Asian Americans face racism and many struggle with multifaceted challenges. For example, Asian Americans show a bimodal distribution in socioeconomic status (SES) and youth adjustments and those who struggle are overshadowed by high-achieving individuals. Cognitive dissonance theory suggests that this divergence between the stereotype and their experiences can produce significant mental discomfort. However, there is limited research exploring the effects of the internalized model minority stereotype (MMS) on the mental health of Asian American youth. Additionally, there are even fewer studies that investigate how these effects differ based on academic achievement or SES. This proposed study aims to explore the relationships between the internalized MMS and mental health outcomes, and how these relationships differ according to grade point average (GPA) and family SES among two major Asian American subgroups, i.e., Filipino American (FA) and Korean American (KA) youth.

Methods: Data are from the Midwest Longitudinal Study of Asian American Families project that survey-interviewed 378 FA and 408 KA youth at Wave 1 in 2014 (M_age.Wave1 = 15). This study used data from Wave 2 (2016) to Wave 4 (2022). Stepwise mixed-effects regression models first examined: (1) the impact of the internalized MMS—MMS-achievement (the stereotype of Asian Americans as hardworking and achievement-oriented) and MMS-mobility (the stereotype that Asian Americans face no socio-economic barriers)—on mental health outcomes (i.e., depressive symptoms, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm); and (2) two-way interaction effects (i.e., MMS×GPA and MMS×SES).

Results: MMS-achievement was significantly associated with increased depressive symptoms, while MMS-mobility was related to decreased depressive symptoms among KA youth. For FA youth, no direct effects of MMS on mental health outcomes were observed. As expected, a higher GPA was consistently predictive of fewer mental health problems across ethnicity. Similarly, higher SES was associated with fewer self-harming behaviors among FA youth. When additionally considering the interaction effects between MMS and GPA, we found that MMS-achievement significantly predicted an increase in depressive symptoms among FA youth with lower GPA (b = .12, p < .05) but not among those with higher GPA. No significant interaction effects were found between MMS and GPA.

Conclusions and Implications: The study findings offer both scholarly and practical implications for promoting healthy development among Asian American youth. First, the results highlight the multi-dimensional nature of MMS and its variant impact across ethnicity. Specifically, among KA youth, MMS-achievement appears to be detrimental, while MMS-mobility seems to have a protective effect against mental health struggles. Additionally, the study revealed that among FA youth, the negative impact of MMS-achievement is contingent on their academic achievement levels. More critically, these findings can inform frontline social workers and school staff—who have been identified as contributors to the stereotyping of Asian American students—about the adverse consequences of this practice, thereby aiding them in better supporting this population.