Experiences of COVID-19-related anti-Asian discrimination and affective reactions in a multiple race sample of U.S. young adults

Experiences of COVID-19-related anti-Asian discrimination and affective reactions in a multiple race sample of U.S. young adults

Little remains known about both Asian and Asian American (A/AA) and non-Asian young adults' experiences and affective reactions regarding COVID-19 anti-Asian discrimination. To our knowledge, this is the first study that explores the nature and impact of COVID-19 anti-Asian discrimination withi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC public health Vol. 21; no. 1; p. 1563
Main Authors: Hahm, Hyeouk Chris, Xavier Hall, Casey D, Garcia, Kana Tsurudome, Cavallino, Anna, Ha, Yoonsook, Cozier, Yvette C, Liu, Cindy
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 18-08-2021
BioMed Central
BMC
Subjects:
Adults
Anti-Asian discrimination
Anxiety
Asian Americans
China virus
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Data analysis
Demographic aspects
Discrimination
Epidemics
Humans
Polls & surveys
Prevention
Public health
Racism
SARS-CoV-2
Social aspects
Social networks
Trump, Donald J
United States
Xenophobia
Young Adult
Young adults
United States
United States > US
China
COVID-19
Discrimination
Racism
Xenophobia
Anti-Asian discrimination
China virus
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Little remains known about both Asian and Asian American (A/AA) and non-Asian young adults' experiences and affective reactions regarding COVID-19 anti-Asian discrimination. To our knowledge, this is the first study that explores the nature and impact of COVID-19 anti-Asian discrimination within a multi-racial sample. This study uses qualitative open-ended responses from a sub-sample of Wave I of the COVID-19 Adult Resilience Experiences Study (CARES) data collected between March to September 2020. Thematic analysis was used to explore two open-ended questions: "Are there experiences we missed in the survey so far that you wish to describe?" and "What are your thoughts about the current social climate?" The data analysis for this study focused on 113 discrimination or racism-related comments. A total of 1331 young adults completed an online survey of which 611 provided comments; a multi-racial sample of 95 individuals (65.3% non-Asians, 24.7% A/AA) contributed 113 COVID-19 anti-Asian discrimination or racism-related comments. Two overarching themes were: types of discrimination (societal, interpersonal, intrapersonal) and affective reactions to discrimination (fear, anxiety/distress, hopelessness/depression, and avoidance). Not only did both A/AA and non-Asian participants report witnessing or hearing reports of anti-Asian discrimination, but both groups described having negative affective reactions to anti-Asian discrimination. Anti-Asian discrimination in the face of COVID may be more widespread than initial reports indicate. Our finding suggests that anti-Asian discrimination is a societal illness that impacts all populations in the U.S. This calls for cross-racial coalitions and solidarity in the fight against discrimination and racism.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1471-2458
1471-2458
DOI:10.1186/s12889-021-11559-1