Internalized Racism and Asian American Mental Health

Engaging the duality of Asian American racialization, as both a devalued other and as an idealized other, may provide a more complete understanding of internalized racism and its negative impact on Asian American mental health. In this study, we investigated how two internalized racism constructs-internalized racial and ethnic inferiority (IR-inferiority) and internalized meritocracy (IR-meritocracy)-together inform the association between racism-related stress and Asian Americans' symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. We used structural equation modeling with robust maximum likelihood to analyze survey data from 430 ethnically diverse Asian Americans (male = 224, female = 201) between 18 and 67 years (M = 30.5, SD = 8.5). IR-inferiority was comprised of measures that reflect internalized devaluing racism, including appropriated racial oppression (Appropriated Racial Oppression Scale; Camp & oacute;n & Carter, 2015) and colonial mentality (Colonial Mentality Scale; David & Okazaki, 2006). IR-meritocracy incorporated measures that reflect idealized racism (Internalization of the Model Minority Myth Measure; Yoo et al., 2010) and color-blind racial ideology (Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale; Neville et al., 2000). The structural model supported a moderated mediation, such that the indirect association of racism-related stress and increased symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress through IR-inferiority was conditional upon levels of IR-meritocracy. Results suggest that decreasing levels of internalized meritocracy may help interrupt the ways that racism contributes to internalized inferiority, thereby promoting more positive mental health outcomes for Asian Americans.