Discrimination and depressive symptoms among Black and Asian American college students: Shared and group-specific processes of self-concept.

Abstract

Black and Asian American emerging adults are at higher risk of experiencing racial/ethnic discrimination and related distress. Racial/ethnic discrimination may increase vulnerability for depressive symptoms by diminishing individuals' positive self-concept. While low global self-esteem has been noted as a crucial process linking discrimination and depressive symptoms, it is unclear if it plays a unique role beyond other relevant aspects of one's self-concept: racial/ethnic private regard and centrality. Moreover, although different racial/ethnic groups are known to experience discrimination in distinctive ways, little is known about how relative processes of self-esteem and racial/ethnic identity may differ across these groups. We investigated the generalizability and specificity of discrimination to distress linkages across Asian and Black Americans. Undergraduate Black (N = 109) and Asian American (N = 90) students self-reported racial/ethnic discrimination, depressive symptoms, and self-concept. Global self-esteem indirectly linked the association between discrimination and depressive symptoms among Black Americans beyond the effects of racial/ethnic identity. Only among Black Americans, discrimination was associated with lower private regard. Finding highlight group-specific processes underlying Black and Asian Americans' experiences of discrimination and depressive symptoms. Findings also demonstrate shared processes of discrimination-depressive symptoms linkage across groups and underscore the need to address the pervasive issues of racism and discrimination. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).