Revisiting and Extending the Role of Religious Coping in the Racism-Mental Health Relation among Christian, Asian American Students

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 166-181
Author(s):  
Paul Youngbin Kim
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
College Students ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Religious Coping ◽  
Asian Americans ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Asian American Students ◽  
Facilitative Role ◽  
Asian American College Students

Despite the prevalent belief to the contrary, Asian Americans are susceptible to experiencing contemporary forms of racism and their deleterious influence on mental health. The present study is an empirical investigation of Asian Americans' experience of racism, its association with mental health, the different religious coping strategies that might be utilized, and the mediating roles of religious coping in a sample of Christian Asian American college students. The current study revisits and extends a prior study (P. Y. Kim, Kendall, & Webb, 2015) by using a more nuanced conceptualization and assessment of religious coping, examining religious coping as a mediator instead of a moderator, and examining mental health outcomes multidimensionally (anxiety, depression, and well-being). Results indicated that Asian American participants tended to rely on certain types of religious coping over others, and that some highly endorsed religious coping strategies had a deleterious effect on mental health (e.g., positively associated with racism and distress symptoms), whereas other endorsed strategies had a facilitative role on mental health (e.g., positively associated with racism, but inversely associated with psychological distress). The findings point to the complex roles religious coping might play in the association between racism and the mental health of Asian American college students.

The Centrality of Critical Agency: How Asian American College Students Develop Commitments to Social Justice

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Samuel D. Museus
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Environmental Threats ◽  
Asian American Students ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
American Students ◽  
Asian American College Students

Context Systemic oppression is one of the most pressing problems in U.S. society. However, relatively little is known about the process by which college students become committed to social justice agendas. In addition, systematic empirical inquiries that examine how Asian American students, in particular, develop such commitments are difficult to find. Purpose/Research Question This inquiry was focused on understanding the process by which Asian American college students develop commitments to social justice. The following overarching research question guided the inquiry: How do Asian American college students cultivate a commitment to social justice? Research Design Using a qualitative approach grounded in a critical paradigm, individual interviews were conducted with Asian American college students involved in social justice activism and advocacy. Data Collection and Analysis A single, semistructured 60-minute face-to-face individual interview was conducted with each participant. The data were analyzed in three phases, using line-by-line, focused, and axial coding. Memos were also used throughout the data analysis process to capture thoughts, make comparisons, and clarify connections across data points. Findings The analysis shows how environmental threats that create a sense of urgency, sources of knowledge that foster collective critical consciousness, and models of critical agency contribute to students developing their own critical agency, which ultimately leads to social justice commitments. Conclusions/Recommendations The current study extends prior knowledge by demonstrating that critical agency is salient in Asian American students developing commitments to engage in social justice agendas. The findings also contribute to existing research by offering some evidence that ongoing opportunities to cultivate critical consciousness and connections to agents who model social justice interact and converge with key environmental threats to shape critical agency. The study also provides some initial evidence that Asian American parents can catalyze students’ critical agency and social justice commitments through serving as sources of knowledge that increase students’ awareness about social injustices and modeling how to contribute to a more just world, while college curricula across diverse disciplines and peer networks that center social injustices also help foster critical consciousness that leads to social justice commitments among some Asian American students.

scholarly journals Media for Coping During COVID-19 Social Distancing: Stress, Anxiety, and Psychological Well-Being

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison L. Eden ◽  
Benjamin K. Johnson ◽  
Leonard Reinecke ◽  
Sara M. Grady
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
College Students ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Media Consumption ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Social Distancing

In spring 2020, COVID-19 and the ensuing social distancing and stay-at-home orders instigated abrupt changes to employment and educational infrastructure, leading to uncertainty, concern, and stress among United States college students. The media consumption patterns of this and other social groups across the globe were affected, with early evidence suggesting viewers were seeking both pandemic-themed media and reassuring, familiar content. A general increase in media consumption, and increased consumption of specific types of content, may have been due to media use for coping strategies. This paper examines the relationship between the stress and anxiety of university students and their strategic use of media for coping during initial social distancing periods in March-April 2020 using data from a cross-sectional survey. We examine links between specific types of media use with psychological well-being concepts, and examine the moderating roles of traits (hope, optimism, and resilience) as buffers against negative relationships between stress and anxiety and psychological well-being. Our findings indicate that stress was linked to more hedonic and less eudaimonic media use, as well as more avoidant and escapist media-based coping. Anxiety, on the other hand, was linked to more media use in general, specifically more eudaimonic media use and a full range of media-based coping strategies. In turn, escapist media was linked to negative affect, while reframing media and eudaimonic media were linked to positive affect. Avoidant coping was tied to poorer mental health, and humor coping was tied to better mental health. Hedonic and need-satisfying media use were linked to more flourishing. Hope, optimism, and resilience were all predictive of media use, with the latter two traits moderating responses to stress and anxiety. The findings give a nuanced portrait of college students’ media use during a pandemic-induced shutdown, showing that media use is closely intertwined with well-being in both adaptive and maladaptive patterns.

scholarly journals Exploring Family Multi-type Maltreatment, Social Support, and Externalizing and Internalizing Problems Among Asian and Asian American College Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Yoko Baba ◽  
James D. Lee ◽  
Michael E. Vallerga
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Social Support ◽  
College Students ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Internalizing Problems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Externalizing And Internalizing Problems ◽  
Asian American College Students

Exposure to family violence as a child has a detrimental long-term impact on one’s life. This relationship is under-researched in Asian populations in the United States or in Asian countries. This study examined long-term effects of maltreatment, including interparental violence and child maltreatment on externalizing and internalizing problems experienced by Asian and Asian American college students. We also explored protective effects of social support against the negative consequences of family maltreatment. Surveying 542 college students in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and the United States, we measured effects of family maltreatment on problem outcomes and examined the role of social support. Exposure to dual harm of family maltreatment (i.e., intraparental violence and child maltreatment) increased students’ externalizing problems compared to exposure to one type of family maltreatment, but no differences in internalizing behaviors were found. Effects of social support from parents and peers on externalizing and internalizing problems were neither moderating nor mediating, but direct. Those who received parental support had fewer externalizing behaviors, but effects of peer support were not significant. In contrast, those who obtained parental and peer support showed lower levels of internalizing mental health concerns. Surprisingly, men exhibited more mental health issues than women. Exposure to dual harm increases behavioral problems, but family support can help repair damage among Asian and Asian American college students. The relationship between abuse and problem outcomes was similar across countries, indicating common psychological processes.

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