Internalized Racism and Asian American Mental Health

Internalized racism is understudied in psychological research and largely misunderstood among Asian Americans. The first chapter of this dissertation was a systematized review to broadly address the general description of Asian American internalized racism and the roles of internalized racism in Asian American mental health. The conceptualization of internalized racism among Asian Americans shares common elements of disadvantaged Asian American group in the social structure positioning relative to the dominant White society but also varied depending on the historical context of the way racialization experience was internalized. Internalized racism also has a significant negative impact toward various negative mental health outcomes and psychological help seeking.

The second chapter of this dissertation was an empirical study aimed to examine internalized racism and shame as a mediator as well as culturally engaging campus environment (CECE) as a moderator in explaining the relationship between discrimination and depression among Asian American college students. The findings suggested that there were multiple pathways from racial discrimination to depression where shame becomes the critical and significant factor that can lead racialized Asian American college students to suffer from depression. CECE was not found to significantly alter the impact of racial discrimination on shame among Asian American students.