Discrimination and Emotion Regulation Among Asian American Parents during the COVID-19 Pandemic

What is it about?

Asian American parents have experienced significant stressors associated with racial discrimination and anticipatory COVID-19-related discrimination fear during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may adversely impact their mental health. Emotion regulation strategies may attenuate the negative effects of discrimination experiences on mental health, but existing findings have been inconsistent regarding the associations between these factors, particularly among the Asian American population. This study examines how the emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression) used among Asian American parents interact with their discrimination experiences (racial discrimination, COVID-19 discrimination fear) to influence their mental health (depression, anxiety) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Featured Image

Photo by cheng feng on Unsplash

Photo by cheng feng on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Given that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a drastic increase in anti-Asian discrimination, this research examines Asian American parents' discrimination experiences during the pandemic and the emotion regulation strategies they utilized during this time that served either to buffer against or exacerbate the negative effects of discrimination on their mental health. Our findings indicated that greater use of expressive suppression exacerbated the adverse effects of racial discrimination on the mental health of Asian American parents. These findings inform research and practice regarding the deleterious effects of racial discrimination and the differential impact of using various emotion regulation strategies on the mental health of Asian American parents.