A Longitudinal Examination of Discrimination among Chinese American Youth: Predictors, Consequences, and Protective Factors
Open Access
- Author:
- Wei, Wei
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 18, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Mayra Bamaca, Outside Unit & Field Member
Dawn Witherspoon, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Jose Soto, Major Field Member
Kristin Buss (she/her), Major Field Member
Kristin Buss (She/Her), Program Head/Chair
Su Yeong Kim, Special Member
Member Committee, Special Member - Keywords:
- Chinese American Adolescents
Discrimination
Neighborhood
Acculturation
Achievement
Depressive Symptoms - Abstract:
- Despite being portrayed as model minorities, Asian American adolescents face the challenges of discrimination. Using longitudinal data from 444 Chinese American adolescents (Mage = 13.04 at wave 1, 54% female), the current study examined if there were variations in discrimination experiences from 7th or 8th grade to college. We also explored if neighborhood ethnic concentration and adolescents’ acculturation predicted discrimination trajectories, whether discrimination trajectories related to depressive symptoms and achievement, and whether parents’ preparation for bias messages moderated the associations between discrimination trajectories and adolescent outcomes. Three distinct discrimination trajectories were identified: (1) Low-increasing trajectory, (2) Moderate-stable trajectory, (3) High-decreasing trajectory. The results revealed that neighborhood ethnic concentration predicted discrimination trajectories with adolescents living in more ethnically concentrated neighborhoods were more likely to be in the Moderate-stable trajectory than in the Low-increasing trajectory. Adolescents’ acculturation also predicted discrimination trajectories with more acculturated adolescents were more likely to be in the Low-increasing trajectory than in the Moderate-stable trajectory. Chinese American adolescents in the High-decreasing trajectory had significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms than adolescents in the other two trajectories. The findings of the study highlight the heterogeneity in Chinese American adolescents’ discrimination experiences and offer us some insights into the adolescents who might be at higher risk for encountering discrimination and in greater need of intervention.