Open AccessExperience of and Worry About Discrimination, Social Media Use, and Depression Among Asians in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Survey Study
Author(s) -
Shuya Pan,
Chia-chen Yang,
Jiun-Yi Tsai,
Chenyu Dong
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
jmir. journal of medical internet research/journal of medical internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.446
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1439-4456
pISSN - 1438-8871
DOI - 10.2196/29024
Subject(s) - worry , racism , psychology , xenophobia , cross sectional study , psycinfo , clinical psychology , mental health , pandemic , medicine , covid-19 , psychiatry , anxiety , medline , political science , sociology , gender studies , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law
Background The COVID-19 outbreak has spurred increasing anti-Asian racism and xenophobia in the United States, which might be detrimental to the psychological well-being of Asian people living in the United States. Objective We studied three discrimination-related variables, including (1) experience of discrimination, (2) worry about discrimination, and (3) racism-related social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic among Asians in the United States. We examined how these three variables were related to depression, and how the association between racism-related social media use and depression was moderated by personal experience of and worry about racial discrimination. Methods A web-based, cross-sectional survey was conducted. A total of 209 people (mean age 33.69, SD 11.31 years; 96/209, 45.93% female) who identified themselves as Asian and resided in the United States were included in the study. Results Experience of discrimination (β=.33, P =.001) and racism-related social media use (β=.14, P =.045) were positively associated with depressive symptoms. Worry about discrimination (β=.13, P =.14) was not associated with depression. Worry about discrimination moderated the relationship between racism-related social media use and depression (β=–.25, P =.003) such that a positive relationship was observed among those who had low and medium levels of worry. Conclusions The present study provided preliminary evidence that experience of discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic was a risk factor of depressive symptoms among Asian people in the United States. Meanwhile, racism-related social media use was found to be negatively associated with the well-being of US Asians, and the relationship between social media use and depression was significantly moderated by worry about discrimination. It is critical to develop accessible programs to help US Asians cope with racial discrimination both in real lives and on social media during this unprecedented health crisis, especially among those who have not been mentally prepared for such challenges.