Culture, Coping, and Racial Discrimination Stress Among Chinese American Youth: A Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study

Using a longitudinal mixed methods approach, this study examined Chinese American youth’s experiences and coping with racial discrimination. Participants included 25 second-generation Chinese American youth who participated in an 8-year, three-wave longitudinal study. The participants’ average age at Time 1 was 15.5 years. Participants were interviewed with open-ended questions about their experiences of discrimination growing up. In addition, quantitative survey data were collected to examine associations between youth’s ethnic identity, acculturation, cultural values, coping, and discrimination stress. The interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. Qualitative responses were coded and quantitative data were analyzed using independent sample t-tests. The participants reported both overt and covert experiences of racial discrimination. Despite facing racial discrimination, many Asian American youth chose to cope in culturally congruent ways that are consistent with their cultural values. Our findings provide new evidence that discrimination distress is linked to negative psychosocial outcomes, lower ethnic identity, and less recognition of heritage culture. Furthermore, our results suggest that culturally congruent coping strategies labeled as maladaptive in North American culture could be adaptive for Chinese American youth against discrimination distress. Study findings have implications for culturally responsive services and practices to support Chinese American youth to succesfully cope with racial discrimination.