Dr. Cixin Wang, AAST Affiliate faculty, and Research Team Links COVID-19 Racism to Asian American Mental Health Challenges
AAST Affiliate Faculty, Dr. Cixin Wang, and a team of researchers recently published a study linking COVID-19 racism to Asian American mental health challenges. The findings were covered in AsAmNews and Maryland Today.
Excerpt from AsAmNews “Study links COVID-19 racism to mental health challenges”
“I felt like I was always on the defensive and trying to gauge if someone was going to hurt me and my parents,” a Chinese American student told AsAmNews.
This heightened fear and anxiety has troubling implications for the mental health of Asian American families.
According to a recent study, mental health among Chinese American families has been negatively impacted by anti-Asian racism related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Researchers based in Maryland surveyed 543 parents and 230 of their children, assessing various experiences of racism and the impact of these experiences on these families’ mental health. The study examined direct experiences of racism as well as indirect exposure, such as through social media or xenophobia perpetuated by the media.
“In the U.S., the COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated the systemic structure of racism and heightened the racial and xenophobic discrimination and violence toward communities of color, such as Chinese Americans,” said Dr. Cixin Wang, Assistant Professor of School Psychology in the College of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. “We wanted to conduct this research so that we can document the severity and impact of the problem, and gain insights about how to intervene.”