Alisia G. T. T. Tran

Bullying among urban Mexican-heritage youth: Exploring risk for substance use by status as a bully, victim, and bully-victim

Little is known about adolescent bullying behavior and its relationship to substance use in ethnic minority populations. In a sample of youth of Mexican heritage, the current study aimed to examine the prevalence of bullying behavior subtypes and its co-occurrence with recent alcohol, cigarette, and inhalant use. Data come from a school-based substance use prevention study in the Southwestern U.S. (n=809). We explored the prevalence of bullying behavior by status among youth classified as bullies, victims, bully-victims, and rarely-involved bully-victims in an urban context. We also investigated risk of past 30-day use of alcohol, cigarettes, and inhalants by bullying behavior status. Compared to non-involved youth, rarely-involved bully-victims were more likely to use alcohol, bullies were more likely to engage in alcohol and cigarette use, and bully-victims were more likely to use alcohol, cigarettes, and inhalants. In contrast, victims were not significantly at risk of substance use compared to non-involved youth. Chronic bullies and bully-victims are particularly at risk for substance use, with chronic bully-victims reflecting the greatest risk of using multiple substances. Prevention and early intervention programs aimed to reduce bullying can also work to decrease other risky behaviors, such as substance use, and should attend to the growing ethnic diversity among youth.

Disordered eating among Asian American college women: A racially expanded model of objectification theory.

Objectification theory has been applied to understand disordered eating among college women. A recent extension of objectification theory (Moradi, 2010) conceptualizes racism as a socialization experience that shapes women of color’s objectification experiences, yet limited research has examined this theoretical assertion. The present study proposed and examined a racially expanded model of objectification theory that postulated perceived racial discrimination, perpetual foreigner racism, and racial/ethnic teasing as correlates of Asian American college women’s (N = 516) self-objectification processes and eating disorder symptomatology. Perceived racial discrimination, perpetual foreigner racism, and racial/ethnic teasing were indirectly associated with eating disordered symptomatology through self-objectification processes of internalization of media ideals of beauty (media internalization), body surveillance, and body shame. Results support the inclusion of racial stressors as contexts of objectification for Asian American women. The present findings also underscore perceived racial discrimination, racial/ethnic teasing, and perpetual foreigner racism as group-specific risk factors with major theoretical, empirical, and clinical relevance to eating disorder research and treatment with Asian American college women.

Personal discrimination and satisfaction with life: Exploring perceived functional effects of Asian American race/ethnicity as a moderator

OBJECTIVES This study aims to understand the relations between experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination, perceptions of the harmful or helpful effects of ones Asian American race/ethnicity within educational and occupational contexts (perceived functional effects), and well-being (i.e., satisfaction with life). A primary focus was to evaluate whether the association between racial/ethnic discrimination and satisfaction with life varied based on the degree to which Asian Americans believe that their race or ethnicity is helpful or harmful to educational and occupational functioning. METHOD This study draws on nationally representative data from ethnically diverse Asian American adults (N = 3,335) and utilizes weighted descriptive, correlational, and logistic regression moderation analyses. RESULTS Ethnic variations emerged across analyses. Logistic regression analyses revealed a significant moderation effect for Chinese and Filipino Americans. Follow-up analyses revealed a protective effect of perceiving more positive or helpful functional effects in nullifying the link between discrimination and dissatisfaction with life for Chinese Americans. By contrast, viewing more harmful functional effects had a buffering effect for Filipino Americans. CONCLUSIONS Results have implications for conceptualizing the potential impact of perspectives that imply Asian American advantage or disadvantage. Opportunities to apply and extend these initial findings are discussed.

Socialization and well-being in multiracial individuals: A moderated mediation model of racial ambiguity and identity.

Scholarly interest in racial socialization is growing, but researchers’ understanding of how and when racial socialization relates to well-being is underdeveloped, particularly for multiracial populations. The present study investigated moderated mediation models to understand whether the indirect relations of egalitarian socialization to subjective well-being and self-esteem through integrated multiracial identification were conditional on phenotypic racial ambiguity among 383 multiracial adults. Tests of moderated mediation in primary analyses were significant for subjective well-being and self-esteem. Consistent with the hypotheses, egalitarian socialization was linked to a stronger multiracial integrated identity, which was positively associated with subjective well-being and self-esteem for those with moderate and high phenotypic racial ambiguity. This indirect effect was not significant for those reporting low phenotypic racial ambiguity. Results suggested a positive role of egalitarian socialization in relation to integrated identity and well-being for multiracial adults. This study highlights a culturally relevant pathway through which egalitarian socialization impacts well-being through racial identification for multiracial adults and the conditions of phenotypic racial ambiguity that contextualize this indirect effect.

Pathways to ethnic-racial identity development and psychological adjustment: The differential associations of cultural socialization by parents and peers.

Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) development is a central developmental process for youth of color. Although a great deal of research establishes the importance of cultural socialization by parents to the development of ERI, limited empirical work has examined peers’ role in these processes. This study uses 4 cross-sectional data sets (N = 127, 312, 257, and 238, mean age = 17.96–18.24) followed by a meta-analytic summary to test a path model of ERI development and parent and peer cultural socialization and their associations with psychological adjustment in a diverse sample of emerging adults. The final sample size adjusted meta-analytic model indicated that parent ethnic socialization predicted both ERI exploration and commitment while only peer preparation for bias predicted ERI commitment. In turn, ERI commitment and exploration predicted more positive mental health. The findings of this study highlight the importance of both parents and peers to cultural socialization processes during emerging adulthood. In particular, this study suggests that the messages peers impart about prejudice play a unique role in the development of ERI. The findings have important implications about the unique role peers play in communicating messages about prejudice as well as for ERI and the psychological adjustment of youth of color at this developmental stage. Additionally, these cross-sectional findings provide a preliminary but robust model from which researchers can frame future longitudinal work in this area.

At what costs? Student loan debt, debt stress, and racially/ethnically diverse college students’ perceived health.

Objectives: There has been little research on the direct and indirect connections between student loan debt and health. The present study tested a transactional stress model (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984a) of student loan debt in which the appraisal of debt as stressful was proposed to mediate the associations between student loan debt amount and perceived health (i.e., self-rated general health, depressive symptomatology). Method: The present study draws on a racially/ethnically diverse college student sample (N = 1,412) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshman (NLSF). Structural equation modeling (SEM) with robust maximum likelihood (MLR) estimation was used to test the fit of the transactional stress model and compare it with an alternative model (that is, Schachter and Singer’s (1962) two factor). Multigroup analyses were conducted to test racial/ethnic differences. Results: SEM results indicated good fit of the transactional stress model and suggested its superiority to the alternative two-factor model. Multigroup SEM analyses revealed racial/ethnic differences. Whereas for Black/African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and White Americans, appraisal of debt as stressful was linked to poorer general health and more depressive symptomatology, these associations were nonsignificant for Asian Americans. Tests of indirect effects indicated that the mediating role of debt stress was most consistently significant for Black/African Americans and Hispanic/Latino Americans compared with Asian and, to a lesser extent, White Americans. Conclusions: Results affirm the potential health impact of both student loan debt amount and the subjective appraisal of stress associated with student loan debt as significant stressors.

Far From Fairness: Prejudice, Skin Color, and Psychological Functioning in Asian Americans

Objectives: We explored the moderating role of observed skin color in the association between prejudice and concurrent and lagged psychological functioning (i.e., depression, ingroup/outgroup psychological connectedness). We further aimed to understand gender differences in these processes. Method: Data from 821 Asian American undergraduate students (57.5% female and 42.5% male) were drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshman. Cross-sectional and longitudinal regression-based moderation models were conducted with PROCESS 2.13 for SPSS. Results: Lighter skin color nullified the association between prejudice and recent depression for Asian American females. This moderating effect did not hold over time with regards to depression symptoms 1 year later. Additionally, prejudice predicted psychological distance to other Asian students 1 year later among females rated as lighter in skin color, whereas prejudice was tied to psychological closeness for females with darker skin ratings. Conclusions: Results highlight skin color as a pertinent factor relevant to the short-term and long-term mental health and social experiences of Asian American women in particular.

Parental Ethnic-Racial Socialization and Social Attitudes Among Ethnic-Racial Minority and White American Emerging Adults

This article utilizes moderated mediation analyses to explore whether the relations between parental ethnic-racial socialization (PERS) dimensions and social attitudes differ across ethnic-racial minority (n = 128) and White (n = 131) college-going emerging adults. We examined social dominance orientation (SDO) as an index of antiegalitarian intergroup attitudes and attitudes toward interpersonal harmony as an index of interpersonal attitudes. We tested whether there were ethnic-racial variations in mediation models in which each type of PERS dimension was expected to be linked to greater antiegalitarian attitudes (greater SDO), which, in turn, was predicted to be associated with less prosocial attitudes (lower harmony enhancement). Results indicated that more frequent cultural socialization and preparation for bias were linked to greater SDO for the White sample, but not for the ethnic-minority sample. Moderation results were nonsignificant for promotion of mistrust, with results indicating a positive link to SDO, regardless of racial-ethnic status. Moderated mediation analyses further revealed indirect effects of cultural socialization and preparation for bias on interpersonal attitudes through SDO for the White sample, but not for the ethnic-minority sample. Specifically, greater cultural socialization and preparation for bias each were linked to greater SDO, which, in turn, was associated with less positive perceptions of the value of maintaining interpersonal harmony for White respondents. Practical applications, including social justice implications, of the results and possibilities for future research are discussed.