COVID-19 racism, anxiety, and racial/ethnic attitudes among Asian American college students

COVID-19 represents a unique psychosocial challenge for Asian Americans, because they have been scapegoated for the virus. Accordingly, this study examined: (a) the types of racism related to COVID-19, particularly scapegoating (verbal blaming, physical shunning), reported by Asian American college students (N = 120); (b) the consequences of COVID-19 racism, particularly mental health (i.e. anxiety symptoms) and attitudes about their race/ethnicity (i.e. internalized racism and racial/ethnic pride); and (c) whether ethnic identity commitment moderated the effects of COVID-19 racism on the outcomes examined. A directed content analysis revealed the most prevalent types of COVID-19 racism being: derogatory non-verbal treatment; verbal blaming; and physical shunning. The top three most prevalent types of impact of COVID-19 racism on participants' racial/ethnic attitudes were: racial/ethnic pride; heightened vigilance about one's race/ethnicity; and no change. Further, regression analyses indicated that physical shunning was significantly and positively associated with anxiety symptoms; this relationship was buffered by high levels of ethnic identity commitment. The perpetual foreigner stereotype significantly predicted higher odds of internalized racism. However, verbal blaming significantly predicted higher odds of racial/ethnic pride when high levels of ethnic identity commitment were present. These results highlight the importance of studying COVID-19 racism and associated psychological concerns. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS Asian American (AA) college students face unique experiences of racism due to the blaming of Asians for the COVID-19 pandemic. The present findings linked COVID-19 racism experiences to greater anxiety and internalized racism. For those students with high ethnic identity commitment, however, COVID-19 racism may strengthen racial/ethnic pride. Therapists working with AA students should understand COVID-19 racism and facilitate ethnic identity commitment development so that pandemic blaming experiences may be rechanneled toward heightened racial/ethnic pride.