Victims of racism suffered more anxiety and depressive symptoms
A survey has found that Coronavirus racism is impacting the mental health of Asian Americans as reported by MedPageToday.
Charissa S. L. Cheah, PhD, of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and colleagues surveyed 543 Chinese-American parents about Coronavirus racism.
50.9% reported COVID-19 discrimination in person and 31.7% reported experiencing online Coronavirus racism.
77.9% of the parents were mothers with 95.9% born outside of the US. 80.7% had a college degree and 53% were employed as administrators, professionals, or large business owners.
The study also surveyed 230 of their children, ages 10-18 years, who reported 50.2% and 45.7% of in person racism and online respectively.
“Preparation for bias and talking to children proactively about potential responses and coping strategies so they don’t internalize [racial discrimination] is really important,” Cheah told MedPage Today.
Both parents and children consequently experienced mental health issues resulting from Coronavirus raicsm. Poor psychological well-being and an increase in anxiety symptoms were recorded.
Parents experienced more depressive symptoms with correlation noted between discrimination and anxiety. Younger participants reported internalizing their problems.
Cheng went on to state that racism must be addressed through education.
“A critical first step is to learn about the history of racism and how it might affect our patients and families, both individually and structurally,” Cheng and Conca-Cheng wrote.
“Parents and schools must teach children about bias and racism; crucially, this requires acknowledging our country’s fraught history of exploiting racial and ethnic minorities.”
STOP AAPI HATE has reported 2,700 racist incidents against Asian Americans since the start of the pandemic.
The UN recently accused Trump of “seemingly legitimising” the rise in hate crimes towards Asian Americans.
In the first Presidential debate, Trump declined to denounce white supremacy whilst calling out for far-right group The Proud Boys.
Although Trump has since stated that the virus is “not the fault of Asian Americans”, he came under fire for repeatedly referring to the virus as “Chinese”.
Most recently, a US Marine filmed himself quoting Trump and threatening to kill Asians.
However, racism towards Asians has also come from the Democratic camp.
In New York, a Joe Biden supporter was caught on camera shouting “film me, you fucking dumbass Chinks!”