Perceived Discrimination, Sense of Control, and Depressive Symptoms Among Korean American Older Adults

This study explored a potential pathway by which perceived discrimination may affect levels of depressive symptoms in a sample of 472 Korean American older adults (M-age = 69.9, SD = 7.04). Building upon previous studies demonstrating that perceived discrimination has negative impacts on mental health, we hypothesized that sense of control would mediate the associations between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms. Our analyses showed that the effects of perceived discrimination on depressive symptoms were not only direct but also mediated through a lowered sense of control. Finding that sense of control serves as an intervening step between perceived discrimination and mental health may help explicate the psychological mechanisms involved in responses to discriminatory experience and has implications for intervention strategies.