Thesis advisor: Janet E. Helms / Previous theory and research on Asian American/Pacific Islanders' (AAPI) racism experiences indicate that anti-AAPI racism is stressful and related to increased physical and psychological symptoms when the two types of symptoms have been investigated as separate constructs. However, cultural models of AAPIs' health postulate that AAPIs experience distress as interrelated physical and psychological symptoms, but no studies have explored whether racism experiences are similarly related to increases in both physical and psychological symptoms. Also, few studies of AAPI health and racism have included racial identity schemas as psychological constructs that potentially interact with experiences of self-reported anti-Asian racism and health symptoms. To better understand how racism experiences, racial identity, and physical and psychological health are related, the present study examined relationships among frequent and distressing anti-AAPI institutional, cultural, and individual racism experiences, racial identity attitudes, and physical and psychological symptoms. U.S.-born AAPIs of Chinese or Korean heritage (N =203) completed a demographic questionnaire, the People of Color Racial Identity Attitudes Scale (Helms, 2011), the Asian American Race-Related Stress Index (Liang, Li, and Kim, 2004), the Pennebaker Inventory of Limbic Languidness (Pennebaker, 1992), and the Kessler-10 (Kessler et al., 2002). Canonical correlation analyses were used to investigate relationships among the variables. Several patterns were identified. Three patterns were significantly, but not strongly related to being of male gender. They were: (a) frequent and distressing experiences of institutional, cultural, and individual racism experiences were related to increased physical and psychological symptoms; (b) institutional racism experiences were associated with increased levels of Dissonance (racial confusion) and Immersion (own-group idealization); and, (c) high levels of Dissonance and low levels of Internalization were related to more psychological and fewer physical symptoms and being of male gender. One pattern was significantly, but not strongly related to being of female gender, wherein high levels of both Dissonance and Immersion were related to increased levels of physical and psychological symptoms. Finally, one pattern was related to being of Chinese ethnicity, wherein cultural racism experiences were associated with high Conformity (White cultural orientation) and Dissonance. Results were discussed with respect to how researchers can assess racism and racial identity-related distress more accurately by using holistic health measures. Methodological limitations of the study and implications for research and practice are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_101966 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Liu, Marcia Mei-Lee |
| Publisher | Boston College |
| Source Sets | Boston College |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, thesis |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. |
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