Asian Pacific Islander Desi American College Students and COVID-19-Related Racial Discrimination: Mental Health and the Moderating Role of Ethnic Identity

Background: Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) communities are the fastest growing racial/ethnic groups in the United States, with a total of 20.6 million individuals making up 6.2% of the US population. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, symptoms of depression and anxiety increased seven-fold within APIDA communities. Among this population, college students were at particularly high risk for mental health challenges due to COVID-19-related racial discrimination. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between COVID-19-related racial discrimination and the mental health of APIDA college students and examine the role of ethnic identity as a moderator in this relationship.

Methods: The data were from the Fall and Spring cohort of the 2020-2021 Healthy Minds Study (HMS), a nonprobability sample of students from 140 colleges and universities across the U.S. The HMS survey is administered annually to a cross-section of schools, with a different set of schools every year, including community colleges, four-year colleges, and professional schools. The sample was restricted to students identifying as APIDA aged 18-29. We used complete-case analysis, resulting in a final analytic sample (n = 2,559). Multivariable linear regression was utilized to test the direct and moderating effects of COVID-19-related racial discrimination, ethnic identity, and ethnicity for symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Results: There were significant associations between COVID-19-related racial discrimination and symptoms of depression (b = 2.15, p < 0.001) and anxiety (b = 1.81, p < 0.001) among the overall sample. There were significant differences across ethnic subgroups when analyzing three-way interactions among COVID-19-related racial discrimination, ethnic identity, and ethnicity for symptoms of depression. Ethnic identity buffered the association between COVID-19-related racial discrimination and symptoms of anxiety among East Asian students and symptoms of both depression and anxiety among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students. In contrast, ethnic identity intensified the association between COVID-19-related racial discrimination and symptoms of depression among Filipino students.

Conclusions: The present study provides evidence of the complex mental health outcomes associated with COVID-19-related racial discrimination among diverse groups of APIDA students in higher education. COVID-19-related racial discrimination was linked to poorer mental health among APIDA college students. The results highlight the importance of investigating the heterogeneity of APIDA communities and the ways that ethnic identity can moderate the effects of COVID-19-related racial discrimination. Social work researchers need to further examine the various ways that APIDA college students explore and understand their ethnic identity to mitigate the effects of racial discrimination within a variety of systemic and complex sociocultural contexts.