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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Aug 8.
Published in final edited form as: J Res Adolesc. 2022 Apr 20;32(2):518–532. doi: 10.1111/jora.12759

Invisibly Oppressed: Individual and Ecological Correlates of Chinese American Adolescents’ Perceived Discrimination

Shanting Chen 1, Wei Wei 2, Dawn P Witherspoon 3, Su Yeong Kim 4
PMCID: PMC10409602  NIHMSID: NIHMS1908705  PMID: 35443094

Abstract

Despite being portrayed as model minorities, Chinese American adolescents still face challenges of discrimination. Using data from 444 Chinese American adolescents (Mage = 13.04, 54% female), this study examined the independent and joint influence of individual cultural characteristics (adolescents’ acculturation and enculturation) and contextual factors (parental discrimination experiences, neighborhood disadvantage, and ethnic concentration) on Chinese American adolescents’ perception of discrimination experiences. Results showed that acculturation was associated with fewer discrimination experiences; yet, higher levels of neighborhood disadvantage were related to more youth discrimination. Mothers’ discrimination experiences were associated with adolescents’ discrimination experiences when adolescents retained more of their Chinese culture. The findings of the study highlight the importance of considering the interplay between contextual and individual factors in influencing adolescents’ development.

Keywords: Chinese American adolescents, neighborhood disadvantage, neighborhood ethnic concentration, parent discrimination, acculturation, discrimination

The number of Asian populations is growing rapidly in the United States (U.S.; U.S. Census Bureau, 2020) and is projected to surpass Latinos, becoming the largest immigrant group by 2050 (López et al., 2017). Changing U.S. demographic patterns have increased researchers’ attention to study the development of Asian American adolescents (Kiang et al., 2016). However, due to the model minority stereotype, most of the previous research has focused on Asian American adolescents’ academic achievement and neglected the social challenges that these adolescents face (Kiang et al., 2016). One salient social challenge that Asian American adolescents often encounter is discrimination, a system of oppression that is defined as prejudicial behavior and unfair treatment based on one’s social group membership (Kessler et al., 1999). The incidents of discrimination against Asian Americans, especially Chinese Americans, have increased exponentially amid the COVID-19 pandemic (Cheah et al., 2020; Gover et al., 2020), which have sparked the nationwide #STOPASIANHATE movement and brought the long history of racism against Asians to the surface. These long-standing issues, which are so often invisible and neglected in the United States, point to the need for a better understanding of discrimination experiences among this population to promote their positive development.

While studies have increasingly documented the detrimental effects of discrimination on developmental outcomes among Asian American adolescents (Cheah et al., 2020; Kiang et al., 2016), few studies examine the individual cultural (e.g., acculturation and enculturation) and contextual (e.g., neighborhood and family characteristics) correlates of discrimination. Furthermore, the integrative risk and resilience (IRR) model (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2018) emphasizes that youth play an active role in their development and that individual cultural characteristics can shape how they are impacted by the contexts surrounding them; however, we know little about how individual cultural characteristics interact with contextual factors to impact Asian American adolescents’ perceptions of discrimination. To fill these gaps, the current study used a sample of Chinese American youth, the largest subgroup of Asian Americans (López et al., 2017), to elucidate how individual cultural (i.e., acculturation/enculturation) and contextual factors (neighborhood disadvantage and ethnic-racial composition, and parents’ discrimination experience), as well as the interplay between them, would influence Chinese American adolescent’s discriminatory experiences.

The current study focused on Chinese American adolescents’ experiences during early and middle adolescence as these are the critical developmental periods when adolescents experience rapid changes in their social contexts and gain more refined cognitive skills to recognize discrimination incidents (Brown & Bigler, 2005). Building upon the developmental perspective, the current study examined whether adolescents’ cultural and contextual characteristics in early adolescence matter more for their concurrent discrimination experiences in early adolescence or their discrimination experiences later in middle adolescence.

Theoretical Framework to Understand Discrimination and its Correlates

The overarching theory that guides the current study is the integrative risk and resilience (IRR) model (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2018). The IRR model builds upon Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) and highlights the importance of considering social position variables (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status) when studying the development of immigrant-origin and minoritized youth as these social positions expose them to unique sociocultural contexts created by social stratification. For example, stratification may produce ethnically and racially segregated neighborhoods that can be both promoting and inhibiting for immigrant-origin and minoritized youth. On the one hand, the neighborhoods immigrant-origin and minoritized youth reside in are often high in neighborhood disadvantage (i.e., lower SES) and replete with frequent psychosocial stressors, such as daily hassles and discrimination (Roosa et al., 2009). Thus, parents of immigrant-origin and minoritized youth are likely to engage in more race-related socialization toward their children (Hughes et al., 2006), which, in turn, may influence their children’s perceptions of discrimination (Benner & Kim, 2009b). On the other hand, in racially segregated environments, a greater proportion of coethnic neighbors can increase mutual trust in the neighborhood (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001) and limit intergroup contact, and thus reduce encounters of discrimination. Further, the IRR model emphasizes the importance of considering acculturative tasks that immigrant-origin and minoritized youth encounter in shaping their adaptation to living in the host country. Past research suggests that Chinese American youth’s acculturation level can affect their discrimination experiences with more acculturated youth reporting less discrimination as they are more familiar with the U.S. culture, whereas less acculturated youth are more likely to be the target of discrimination (Juang & Alvarez, 2011).

In addition to the unique influence of individual and contextual characteristics, the IRR model also underscores the importance of considering the interplay between individual and contextual factors as the adaptation of immigrant-origin and minoritized youth is constantly shaped by the interactions between the characteristics of the individual and the characteristics of contexts. Therefore, based on this theoretical framework, we focus on how youth cultural characteristics (i.e., acculturation/enculturation) and contextual factors (i.e., neighborhood and family) uniquely and jointly influence their perceptions of discrimination. Below, we provide the existing empirical evidence linking neighborhood, family, and youth acculturation to youth’s discrimination experiences. We also highlighted the studies that focused on Chinese American youth.

Chinese American Youth’s Acculturation and Discrimination

According to the IRR model (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2018), when immigrant-origin and minoritized youth adapt to the receiving culture, they must coordinate and adapt to the differences between the host and heritage cultures, and many of them consider themselves to be bicultural by simultaneously engaging in acculturation (i.e., engagement in the host culture) and enculturation processes (maintenance involvement in the culture of family’s origin). In the process of navigating the differences between the two cultures, pressures may follow, such as being a minority in the host culture and being the victim of discrimination (Berry, 2003; Juang & Alvarez, 2011). When minoritized individuals navigate the U.S. culture, they are likely to be unfairly treated due to the U.S.’s social stratification, their minority status, and the perpetual foreigner stereotype (Berry, 2003). Such stressful acculturation experiences are an integral part of the lives of Chinese Americans who have historically experienced racial discrimination (Juang & Cookston, 2009).

Prior research found that immigrant-origin and minoritized individuals’ acculturation levels may affect their discrimination experiences. Specifically, using a sample of Chinese American adolescents, scholars found that acculturation can ease interactions with other ethnic groups and thus relate to less discrimination (Juang & Cookston, 2009). The same study also found that enculturated individuals are more likely to experience discrimination as they are potentially viewed as outsiders with different languages and different holidays celebrated (Juang & Cookston, 2009). Similarly, with a sample of Chinese American adolescents, Benner and Kim (2009) found that higher levels of orientation to U.S. culture were associated with less discrimination. However, using samples of Chinese American adults (Goto et al., 2002) and Asian American college students (Wang et al., 2019), other scholars found that acculturation was associated with more discrimination experiences, because acculturated individuals might be more familiar with mainstream social norms and more aware of the subtle forms of racism. The mixed findings suggest that the association between acculturation and discriminatory experiences may differ across developmental periods, calling for the need to use longitudinal studies. The current studies utilized longitudinal datasets to understand the concurrent and longitudinal links between acculturation and discrimination.

Intergenerational Experiences of Discrimination among Chinese American Families

The IRR model highlights that parents play a key role in shaping immigrant-origin and minoritized youth’s developmental outcomes (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001). Garcia Coll and colleagues’ integrative model (1996) for minority youth further posits that parent’s experiences of cultural stress (e.g., discrimination) can influence minority youth’s adaptive cultural experiences. Based on these theoretical models, it is possible that Chinese American parents’ experiences of discrimination can influence their adolescent child’s experiences of discrimination. Prior research within Chinese Americans found that parents who reported higher levels of discrimination were more likely to experience stress over being stereotyped as perpetual foreigners, and their adolescent children were likely to internalize the stress related to the perpetual foreigner stereotype and became more sensitive to discriminatory treatment (Benner & Kim, 2009b). In addition, parents’ experiences of discrimination may motivate them to engage in more ethnic–racial socialization conversations with their youth, which may make adolescents more aware of discriminatory treatment (Hughes & Johnson, 2001). The intergenerational experiences of discrimination may be especially salient within Chinese American families as family ties are strongly valued and children are often well integrated into their parents’ social world (Yee et al., 2007).

The influences of paternal and maternal discrimination experiences on adolescents’ development may differ as fathers and mothers play different child-rearing roles in Chinese culture. Specifically, fathers are often the authority figures in the family and play a disciplinary role in childrearing, whereas mothers are often the primary caregivers and play more of a warm and supportive role to their children (Chao & Tseng, 2002). Given that mothers tend to spend more time with their children and possibly engage in more conversations about their experiences of discrimination and share more ethnic–racial socialization messages (Hughes et al., 2006), it is possible that mothers’ experiences of discrimination may be more strongly related to adolescents’ perceptions of discrimination compared to those of fathers.

Neighborhood Characteristics and Chinese American Adolescents’ Discrimination Experiences

Neighborhood is an important context for youth as they spend increasing amounts of time interacting with peers in the neighborhood and thus are influenced by neighborhood characteristics (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). Neighborhood structural characteristics, such as neighborhood disadvantage and ethnic heterogeneity, are the two widely studied characteristics that are found to have implications for residents’ well-being. Neighborhood characteristics are particularly important to study within Chinese American communities despite limited research. Chinese Americans are an extremely diverse population, because they come from all socioeconomic backgrounds and reside in diverse neighborhoods, with some living in ethnic enclaves and others living in more integrated middle-class communities where Chinese is rarely spoken (Gebeloff et al., 2021).

Based on social disorganization theory (SDT; Shaw & McKay, 1942), neighborhood disadvantage (e.g., concentrated poverty, high unemployment rate within the neighborhood, low levels of education, and female-headed households) adversely influences social relationships of the neighborhood, creating limited opportunities for residents to develop strong social ties and achieve shared norms of monitoring unacceptable behaviors within the community. Mistrust and fears, which are more prevalent in disadvantaged neighborhoods, can increase psychological stressors, such as discrimination, and thereby diminish residents’ psychological well-being (Sellström & Bremberg, 2006). To date, there is no study that examines the association between neighborhood disadvantage and Chinese American adolescents’ discrimination experiences. Thus, we turn to research with Black samples for further insights. Using a sample of African American adolescents, Witherspoon et al. (2016) found that youth exposed to more neighborhood disadvantage in seventh grade reported greater expectations of discrimination in eighth grade. A similar association between neighborhood disadvantage and discrimination experiences was reported by Martin et al. (2011) using a sample of African American adolescents.

Prior research has also examined the relation between neighborhood ethnic concentration (e.g., the percentage of same-ethnic members in one’s neighborhood) and discriminatory experiences. Although theories (García Coll et al., 1996; Shaw & McKay, 1942) suggest that ethnic concentration is a beneficial factor and provides important cultural support for coethnic adolescents, studies show mixed findings. A recent review study (Pasco et al., 2021) showed that 56% of the existing studies found that higher ethnic–racial concentrations were associated with less discrimination for Black, Asian Americans, and Latinx (Martin et al., 2011), whereas others either did not find significant results (Witherspoon et al., 2016) or the opposite results (White et al., 2014). To date, only one study (Juang & Alvarez, 2011) examined the association between ethnic concentration and perceived discrimination among Chinese American adolescents. However, this study found that objective percentage of Chinese American residents in the neighborhood was not associated with adolescents’ perceptions of discrimination, whereas subjective perceptions of a more ethnically homogenous neighborhood were related to more discrimination. One limitation of this study is that they used zipcodes1 as the geographic unit for the neighborhood and that the restricted range of ethnic concentration (15–63%) in the sample limits the generalizability of the results. Therefore, more studies among Asian American adolescents are needed to determine whether the same pattern can be replicated.

The Interplay between Individual and Contextual Characteristics

Theory and past research suggest that neighborhood, family, and acculturation play important roles in shaping immigrant-origin and minoritized youth’s development. However, we know little about how they work together, especially among Chinese American adolescents. According to the person–environment fit perspective (Lerner, 1983), it is important to examine the fit between the characteristics of contexts and individuals. Greater person–environment fit suggests more favorable adjustment, whereas misfit suggests poor adjustment. Consistent with this perspective, past research found that adolescents with high orientation to their heritage culture were more likely to benefit from living in ethnically concentrated neighborhoods as the lifestyles and values endorsed in such neighborhoods are likely to match with their cultural values and behaviors (Jurcik et al., 2013). In addition, ethnic enclaves may provide strong social ties for enculturated individuals as their neighbors are likely to share similar values and expectations (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001). Therefore, it is possible that compared to Chinese American adolescents low in Chinese orientation, those with high orientation to Chinese culture may be protected in high Chinese concentration neighborhoods such that they may encounter less discriminatory experiences.

Acculturation may also moderate the associations between parental experiences of discrimination and adolescents’ experiences of discrimination. The study conducted by Juang and Alvarez (2011) explored whether generational status, a proxy variable of acculturation, moderated the associations between parents’ discrimination experiences and Chinese American youth’s discrimination experiences. Specifically, they found that the association between parent-perceived discrimination and youth discrimination was found only for foreign-born adolescents, not for U.S.-born adolescents. They speculated that the reason for the finding might be that foreign-born adolescents were more similar to (a greater match to) their parents in terms of acculturation level (e.g., both less acculturated to the U.S. culture while retaining the Chinese culture); therefore, they were more responsive to their parents’ experiences. Although generational status is a proxy for acculturation, immigrant adolescents may differ in their levels of adaptation to U.S. culture and retention of the heritage culture (Cruz et al., 2008). The current study addressed this limitation by directly measuring acculturation and enculturation and explored their moderating roles in the associations between multiple contextual factors (i.e., neighborhood disadvantage, ethnic concentration, and parent discrimination) and Chinese American adolescents’ experiences of discrimination.

The Current Study

The current study examined how individual cultural characteristics (adolescents’ acculturation) and contextual factors (i.e., parental experiences of discrimination, neighborhood disadvantage, and ethnic concentration) independently and conjointly influenced Chinese American youth’s perceptions of discrimination. Four research questions were explored in this study. The research questions and their corresponding hypothesis are as below.

The first research question explored whether youth acculturation and enculturation were associated with their discrimination experiences. Because of the mixed findings in the prior research, we did not make specific hypotheses. The second research question examined whether parents’ discrimination was associated with youth’s discrimination experiences. Based on extant research, we hypothesized that more parental discrimination would be positively associated with youth’s discrimination experiences. The third research question tested whether neighborhood disadvantage and ethnic concentration were associated with discrimination. Based on SDT (Shaw & McKay, 1942) and previous research, we hypothesized that higher levels of neighborhood disadvantage would be related to more discrimination. As previous findings were mixed, we did not have a specific hypothesis regarding ethnic concentration and discrimination. The fourth research question examined whether youth acculturation and enculturation moderated the association between contextual factors (i.e., disadvantage and ethnic concentration, and parent’s discrimination), and youth’s experiences of discrimination. Based on the person–environment fit perspective (Lerner, 1983), we hypothesized that enculturated individuals living in high ethnically concentrated neighborhoods would experience less discrimination. We also explored the concurrent and longitudinal relations between the individual and contextual correlations and youth’s experiences of discrimination.

METHODS

Participants

Participants were 444 Chinese American families participating in a longitudinal study. Adolescents were initially recruited from seven middle schools in two regions in northern California. Slightly more than half the sample (54%) was female (mean age = 13.04 years, SD = 0.73 at Wave 1; 17.1 years, SD = 0.80 at Wave 2). Adolescents were in 7th or 8th grade at Wave 1 and, 4 years later, were in 11th or 12th grade at Wave 2. The median level of family income was between $30,001 and $45,000. The median parental educational level was some high school education for both fathers and mothers (36% of fathers and 31% of mothers did not finish high school). Most parents (90% of mothers and 87% of fathers) were born outside the United States, whereas most (76%) of the adolescents were born in the United States. At Wave 1, families lived in 109 neighborhoods (i.e., census tracts). Our study samples had slightly lower socioeconomic status compared with the national average of Chinese Americans at the time of data collection.

Procedure

After gaining consent from local school districts, middle schools with a substantive population of Asian American students (at least 20% of the student body) were selected for participation, resulting in seven eligible middle schools. Chinese American families were then identified by school administrators. Of those families contacted, 47% consented to participate in the study. Four years later, families were approached to participate in the second data collection wave. Approximately 80% of Wave 1 participating families completed questionnaires at Wave 2. At each wave, the entire family received nominal compensation ($30 at Wave 1 and $50 at Wave 2) for their participation. Both English and Chinese version questionnaires were available to participants. To ensure comparability of the two versions, questionnaires were translated into Chinese and then back-translated into English. Inconsistencies were resolved by two bilingual research assistants, with careful consideration of items’ culturally appropriate meaning. The majority of adolescents used the English version questionnaires (85%); more than 70% of fathers and mothers completed the Chinese version.

Attrition analyses examining families that participated in both data collection waves and those that were not retained at the second wave of data collection revealed no significant differences between groups on key demographic variables (i.e., parental education, family income, parent and child immigration status, parent marital status, and parental age) with one exception: Boys were more likely to have left the study than girls, χ2(1) = 16.1, p < .001. In response to this difference, adolescent gender is included as a covariate for all analyses.

Measures

Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations of the study variables are presented in Table 1. The correlates of youth’s experiences of discrimination were assessed in early adolescence (Wave 1), and youth’s experiences of discrimination were assessed at both early adolescence (W1) and middle adolescence (Wave 2).

TABLE 1.

Bivariate correlations between study variables

Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1. Parents’ education –
2. Gender .00 –
3. Age −.11* −.01 –
4. Father discrimination −.09 −.10 −.05 –
5. Mother discrimination −.09 −.01 .01 .30** –
6. W1 adolescent discrimination −.14** .06 .06 .10* .128** –
7. W2 adolescent discrimination −.11* .04 .08 .00 .07 .35** –
8. Ethnic concentration .12* −.05 −.07 .02 .00 −.17** −.14** –
9. Neighborhood disadvantage −.01 .01 .00 .18** .10 −.03 −.03 .41** –
10. Acculturation −.14** −.01 −.02 .07 .02 .09* .07 −.05 .06 –
11. Enculturation −.29** .11* −.01 .05 .04 .08 .02 −.02 .05 .03 –
Mean 5.88 0.46 13.04 2.02 1.96 1.72 1.78 3.73 3.8 33.29 0
SD 1.63 0.5 0.73 0.48 0.47 0.5 0.51 0.49 0.56 17.88 0.75
N 440 441 442 381 407 443 345 442 442 442 442
Skewness −.25 .16 .03 −.03 .11 .51 .32 −.61 −.30 .79 1.55
Kurtosis −.28 −1.98 −.92 −.39 −.33 −.08 −.39 1.57 .34 1.24 2.94
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Note.

*

p < .05

**

p < .01, and

***

p < .001.

Acculturation.

Acculturation was assessed with the Vancouver Index of Acculturation (Ryder et al., 2000). Ten items in the scale measure adolescents’ orientation toward U.S. culture (acculturation; e.g., I often follow mainstream American cultural traditions, I am willing to marry an American person, I enjoy American entertainment, and I am interested in having American friends). The Chinese orientation (enculturation) items are the same as the American orientation items, except that the word American is changed to Chinese. Items are rated on a 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Adolescents’ orientation toward the U.S. culture (M = 3.72, SD = 0.48) and Chinese culture (M = 3.80, SD = 0.55) demonstrated good reliability (α = .81 and α = .84, respectively). Higher scores indicate higher levels of orientation to either U.S. or Chinese culture.

Discrimination.

The Chronic Daily Discrimination Scale was used to assess fathers’, mothers’, and adolescents’ perceptions of discrimination experiences (Kessler et al., 1999). One additional item was added (i.e., “People assumed my English is poor”) to make the scale more relevant to Asian Americans (Benner & Kim, 2009a). In total, ten items (e.g., “I am treated with less courtesy than other people.”) were used in the study, and items were rated on a 4-point frequency scale (1 = never and 4 = often). The scale demonstrated good reliability among fathers (α = .87; Mfather = 2.02, SD = 0.48), mothers (α = .85; Mmother = 1.96, SD = 0.47), and youth (α = .85; Myouth = 1.72, SD = 0.50 at Wave 1; α = .86; Myouth = 1.77, SD = 0.49 at Wave 2). Higher scores represent more frequent discrimination experiences.

Neighborhood disadvantage.

Neighborhood disadvantage was measured with the 2000 U.S. census data, which are the available census data that are closest to the data collection year (2002). The home address reported by parents was geocoded to determine the census tract. A neighborhood disadvantage index was created by averaging the standardized mean of four variables: each tract’s percentages of adults aged 25 and older without a high school diploma, unemployed adults aged 16 years and older, female-headed households, and family average income below the federal poverty level. These indicators have been commonly used in prior empirical work as measures of neighborhood disadvantage (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). On average, families lived in neighborhoods where 12% of the households were female-headed, 3% of the adults aged 16 years and older were unemployed, 8% of the families’ incomes were below the federal poverty level, and 23% of the adults did not have a high school diploma. The neighborhoods families lived in were comparable to the national average in terms of the four disadvantage scores (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). The standardized score for neighborhood disadvantage in the current sample ranged from −1.15 to 3.62 (SD = 0.75). Higher scores indicate a higher level of neighborhood disadvantage.

Neighborhood Chinese American concentration.

Neighborhood Chinese American concentration was derived from the 2000 U.S. census; scores indicate the percentage of Chinese American residents living within a census tract and were calculated by dividing the number of Chinese American residents within the tract by the total population of the tract and then multiplying by 100. Chinese American neighborhood concentration ranged from 1.27% to 92.09%. On average, adolescents in this study lived in neighborhoods where one-third of the residents identified as Chinese (M = 33.29%, SD = 17.88).

Covariates.

Covariates included parents’ average educational level reported by father and mother (from 1 = no formal schooling to 9 = finished graduate degree), gender (1 = male, 0 = female), and youth age.

Analytic Plan

Hierarchical regression was conducted in Mplus 8.3 (Muthén & Muthén, 2017) to examine how parents’ experiences of discrimination, neighborhood characteristics, and adolescents’ acculturation level were uniquely and jointly associated with Chinese American adolescents’ reports of discrimination. Due to the nested nature of the data (families nested in neighborhoods), intraclass correlation (ICC) analyses were examined for all study variables (except for neighborhood disadvantage and ethnic concentration, which are constant within neighborhoods) to determine the proportion of variance at the between-neighborhood level. ICCs of all variables were below 0.1 (ranging from 0.002 to 0.010), which indicated that there was not a significant amount of variance that was explained by between-neighborhood differences. Therefore, full-information maximum likelihood (FIML) estimation was used to handle missing data.

Gender, age, and parent’s educational level were entered at step 1 as covariates. Adolescents’ orientation toward U.S. and Chinese culture was entered at step 2 to explore the associations between individuals’ acculturation level and their reports of discrimination. Father’s and mother’s perceptions of discrimination were included at step 3 to explore the association of family-level factors with adolescents’ own perceptions of discrimination. Neighborhood disadvantage and Chinese concentration were entered at step 4 to explore the associations between neighborhood-level predictors and adolescents’ discrimination experience. Two-way interactions between study variables (i.e., acculturation, parents’ perceptions of discrimination, and neighborhood characteristics) were entered at step 5 in batches such that the interactions between individual cultural characteristics (i.e., acculturation and enculturation) and parents’ perceptions of discrimination were first explored, followed by the interactions between individual cultural characteristics and neighborhood-level characteristics. Significant interactions were probed.

RESULTS

Bivariate correlations between variables of interest are presented in Table 1. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to explore the associations of adolescents’ own acculturation level, fathers’ and mothers’ reported discrimination, and neighborhood characteristics with adolescents’ perceptions of discrimination. Results of the hierarchical regression are presented in Table 2.

TABLE 2.

Results of cross-sectional hierarchical regressions predicting Chinese American adolescents’ discrimination at W1

B SE p ΔR2
Step 1. Covariates
 Parent educational level −.04** .02 <.01 .03*
 Gender .01 .06 .17
 Age .03 .03 .30
Step 2. Individual cultural characteristics
 Acculturation −.16** .06 <.01 .02*
 Enculturation .02 .06 .67
Step 3. Family
 Father discrimination .09† .06 .09 .02*
 Mother discrimination .10† .06 .10
Step 4. Neighborhood
 Disadvantage .08* .04 .03 .01†
 Ethnic concentration .01 .01 .13
Step 5. Interactions
 F_Discrimination × Acculturation .04 .12 .76 .01
 F_Discrimination × Enculturation −.18 .11 .11
 M_Discrimination × Acculturation −.09 .12 .47
 M_Discrimination × Enculturation .19* .10 .06
 Concentration × Acculturation −.01 .01 .49
 Concentration × Enculturation −.01 .06 .31
 Disadvantage × Acculturation −.02 .09 .80
 Disadvantage × Enculturation .07 .07 .31
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Note. F_Discrimination = father discrimination; M_Discrimination = mother discrimination; and Concentration=ethnic concentration.

†

.06 < p < .10

*

p < .05; and

**

p < .01.

For the concurrent relations, parents’ educational level, adolescents’ gender, and age were entered at step 1 as covariates. The results indicated that parents’ educational level was negatively associated with adolescents’ perceptions of discrimination (B = −.04, SE = .02, p < .01), which suggests that adolescents who had parents with higher education tended to experience less discrimination. Adolescents’ orientation to U.S. culture and Chinese culture were entered at step 2. The results showed that higher levels of orientation to U.S. culture were associated with lower levels of discrimination (B = −.15, SE = .05, p < .01) such that if adolescents were more acculturated to U.S. culture, then they were less likely to experience discrimination. However, adolescents’ orientation toward Chinese culture was not associated with discrimination experiences (B = .02, SE = .05, p = .67). Mother and father discrimination were entered at step 3. Results revealed that mother’s and father’s discrimination was marginally associated with adolescent’s discrimination (B = .10, SD = 0.06, p = .10; B = .09, SD = 0.05, p = .09, respectively). Neighborhood disadvantage and Chinese concentration were entered at step 4. The results indicated that higher levels of neighborhood disadvantage were associated with more adolescent-reported discrimination (B = .08, SD = 0.04, p = .03), whereas ethnic concentration was unrelated to adolescents’ reports of discrimination (B = .01, SD = 0.01, p = .13).

In the concurrent analyses, two-way interactions between study variables were entered at step 5 in batches (interactions between acculturation and family first, followed by interactions between acculturation and neighborhood). The results showed that the interaction between mother’s discrimination and youth orientation to Chinese culture was significant (B = .19, SD = 0.10, p = .05). A simple slope analysis was conducted to probe this significant interaction. The result (see Figure 1) indicated that only when adolescents were high in orientation to Chinese culture (+1SD), mother discrimination was positively associated with youth discrimination (B = .17, SD = .08, p = .03). Parallel analyses were conducted to predict youth’s experiences at Wave 2 (see Table 3). However, no significant results emerged.

FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 1

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Association between mother’s discrimination and adolescents’ discrimination moderated by youth’s enculturation. Note. *p < .05; NS, nonsignificant.

TABLE 3.

Results of longitudinal hierarchical regressions predicting Chinese American adolescents’ discrimination

B SE p ΔR2
Step 1. Covariates
 Parent educational level −.04** .02 .01 .03
 Gender −.07 .05 .21
 Age .03 .04 .54
Step 2. Individual cultural characteristics
 Acculturation −.08 .07 .30 .01
 Enculturation .07 .06 .29
Step 3. Family
 Father discrimination .04 .06 .73 .02*
 Mother discrimination .03 .07 .70
Step 4. Neighborhood
 Disadvantage .06 .04 .12 .01
 Ethnic concentration −.01 .01 .31
Step 5. Interactions
 F_Discrimination × Acculturation .02 .14 .91 .01
 F_Discrimination × Enculturation .08 .14 .56
 M_Discrimination × Acculturation −.20 .15 .20
 M_Discrimination × Enculturation .03 .11 .77
 Concentration × Acculturation .01 .01 .64
 Concentration × Enculturation .01 .08 .11
 Disadvantage × Acculturation −.19† .11 .08
 Disadvantage × Enculturation .13 .08 .11
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Note. F_Discrimination = father discrimination; M_Discrimination = mother discrimination; and Concentration = ethnic concentration.

†

.05 < p < .10

*

p < .05; and

**

p < .01.

DISCUSSION

Given the increasing number of Asian Americans in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020), it is important to understand the challenges that are encountered by Asian American adolescents. The present study focused on the discriminatory experiences among Chinese American youth. Guided by the integrative risk and resilience (IRR) model (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2018), the present study examined how individual cultural characteristics (i.e., adolescents’ acculturation and enculturation) and contextual factors (i.e., parent discrimination, neighborhood disadvantage, and ethnic concentration) independently and conjointly influence Chinese American adolescents’ experiences of discrimination. Overall, the results suggested that Chinese American youth’s experiences of discrimination are associated with contextual and individual cultural characteristics in nuanced ways.

In examining the influence of individual factors on adolescents’ perception of discrimination, our results showed that Chinese American adolescents who were less acculturated reported more discrimination incidents. This result echoed the tenet of the IRR model (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2018) that, as immigrant-origin youth adapt to their lives to the new host culture, they inevitably have to encounter acculturative tasks, and those tasks play an important role in shaping their experiences in adjusting to the host culture. This result was also consistent with prior studies that found the negative association between acculturation and discrimination (Juang & Cookston, 2009; Motti-Stefanidi, 2018). Even though Chinese Americans have long been viewed as foreigners despite their actual levels of acculturation (Lee et al., 2008), it is possible that less acculturated Chinese American youth may have stronger foreign accents, are less familiar with the U.S. culture and values, and have fewer friends from other ethnic groups (Kulis et al., 2009), all of which may invite more discriminatory treatments. This result underscores the need for more interventions that focus on helping Chinese American youth adapt to the new U.S. culture. Perhaps schools and communities can organize activities that increase intergroup contact, which has been found to improve intergroup social integration and reduce discrimination (Wright & Bougie, 2007).

In terms of contextual factors, our results suggested that neighborhood disadvantage was associated with more experiences of discrimination. Specifically, we found that Chinese American adolescents experienced higher levels of discrimination when they lived in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. This finding is consistent with social disorganization theory (Shaw & McKay, 1942), which suggests that poverty in the neighborhood may impact how adolescents view their environment and increase the likelihood of encountering discrimination. It is possible that neighborhoods with concentrated poverty are more likely to be stigmatized so that Chinese American youths living in those areas are more likely to experience discrimination, because of their residential locations and low socioeconomic status (Besbris et al., 2015). It is also possible that the effects of neighborhood disadvantage on youth’s experiences of discrimination may differ depending on the nature of ethnic enclaves. For example, low-income immigrants may experience less discrimination if they reside in ethnic enclaves as those neighborhoods are relatively high in social cohesion (Roosa et al., 2009). However, due to the limited variability of ethnic concentration and the weak correlation between ethnic concentration and neighborhood disadvantage (r = .03) in the current sample, we did not further explore this speculation. Future studies with more diverse samples could explore the interactive roles of neighborhood disadvantage and ethnic concentration in shaping Chinese American youth’s adaptive cultural experiences.

Surprisingly, ethnic concentration in the neighborhood was not related to adolescents’ perceptions of discrimination. This finding is consistent with research by Juang and Alvarez (2011), who found that only subjective, not objective, perceptions of ethnic concentration were related to adolescents’ perceptions of discrimination. This null finding may reflect a limitation of the ethnic concentration measure used in the current study such that it did not capture the level of social cohesion and support within the neighborhood. Although ethnic concentration may serve as a proxy for social cohesion and support in the neighborhood, there is heterogeneity in neighborhood experiences (Aber & Nieto, 2000). Therefore, some coethnics may not necessarily perceive cohesion or feel that it translates into actual interactions rooted in mutual trust among neighbors. Past research and theory suggest that perceptions of neighborhood social processes (e.g., social cohesion, neighborhood connection, and social support) play an important role in affecting adolescent development (Dupéré et al., 2012). Moreover, some studies showed that when both objective and subjective measures of neighborhood were both included, the subjective measure of neighborhood social processes had more predictive value of outcomes (Jones & Shen, 2014). This suggests that the actual social relationships built within the neighborhood may matter more than the mere ethnic concentration for adolescents’ development (Zhou & Kim, 2006). Future studies could go beyond ethnic concentration and focus more on the social cohesion in the neighborhood.

Contrary to our hypotheses, we did not find evidence for intergenerational association between parents’ and adolescents’ experiences of discrimination after accounting for the covariates. It is possible that parents’ experiences of discrimination are associated with their children’s experiences via other processes that were not measured in the current study such as parental perception of foreigner stress (Benner & Kim, 2009b). Another possible explanation is that Asian American parents may be reluctant to discuss their experiences of discrimination with children given the cultural focus on emotional restraint and group harmony (Hughes et al., 2006). However, it is important to note that data of the current study were collected 20 years ago, and ethnic–racial socialization practices may appear to be different in contemporary times, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Burgeoning research has found that Asian American parents are actively engaging in discussing race-related issues and delivering ethnic–racial socialization messages with their children, especially promotion of mistrust, to protect their children from being racially discriminated (Cheah et al., 2021). Therefore, future studies are encouraged to further examine the intergenerational experiences of discrimination using more recent datasets.

In addition, our results suggested that individual and contextual factors work conjointly to influence adolescents’ perception of discrimination. Specifically, mothers’ discrimination experiences were associated with adolescents’ experiences of discrimination when adolescents retained more of their Chinese culture. In other words, mother’s discrimination experiences were only transmitted to adolescents when they were highly enculturated. This finding is consistent with the person–environment fit perspective (Lerner, 1983) that enculturated adolescents may be more similar to their mothers’ level of enculturation, and therefore, they are more attentive to their mothers’ experiences of discrimination, which may make them more aware of racial issues in the United States and thus become more sensitive and vigilant about racial–ethnic discrimination. It is also important to note that this moderating effect was not significant for paternal discrimination. As mothers are often the primary caretakers in Chinese American families and they tend to spend more time with children (Chao & Tseng, 2002), it may be that mothers’ experience of discrimination takes a more salient role in influencing how adolescents perceive and think about discrimination. It is also possible that as fathers are the authority figures in the patriarchal Chinese culture (Chao & Tseng, 2002), they are reluctant to share their hardships with children, and thus, the intergenerational transmission of discriminatory experiences between fathers and children is less salient.

It is also important to note that neighborhood and acculturation characteristics during early adolescence were only concurrently related to youth’s discrimination experiences in early adolescence but not their discrimination experiences in middle adolescence. This suggests that adolescents’ acculturation level and their contextual environment may have more of an immediate association with their experiences of discrimination. As acculturation is a fluid process and adolescents tend to change in their levels of acculturation/enculturation across time (Yan et al., 2021), it is not surprising that we did not find evidence of the longitudinal linkage.

Strength, Limitations, and Future Directions

The current study has several strengths. First, the current study adds to the limited neighborhood research among Asian Americans and emphasizes the detrimental effects of disadvantaged neighborhoods on Chinese American youth’s development. Second, guided by the integrative risk and resilience (IRR) model (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2018), the current study is among the first to examine the interplay between multiple contexts of neighborhood and family in influencing Chinese American adolescents’ development. Our results highlight that adolescents’ enculturation level and maternal experiences of discrimination work conjointly in influencing adolescents’ perceptions of discrimination. Future studies should continue considering the interplay among important contexts of adolescents. Third, the differential findings of fathers’ and mothers’ measures of discrimination when interacting with acculturation in influencing adolescents’ experiences of discrimination speak to the various child-rearing roles of fathers and mothers in Chinese American adolescents’ lives.

Despite these strengths, there are also a few limitations. First, the current sample was recruited from Northern California, an area with a high concentration of Chinese Americans, and thus, the generalizability of our findings to other Chinese Americans living in regions with low ethnic concentration needs to be tested in future studies. In a similar vein, given the heterogeneity within Asian cultures (Xia et al., 2013), the generalizability of our findings to other Asian American ethnic groups must be tested given that we only focus on Chinese American families and that these families were in lower socioeconomic status compared with the national average of Chinese Americans. Second, the data used in the current study are about 20 years old. As the prevalence of discrimination among Asian Americans had increased in recent years, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic (Cheah et al., 2020), it is possible that the prevalence of discrimination would be higher if the data were collected in the current time. Meanwhile, parents of Asian American adolescents may talk to their children about discrimination more frequently to prepare them for potential encounters of discrimination. Thus, the associations we observed in the current study may be amplified if the data were collected in the current sociopolitical climate. Future studies with more recent datasets are needed. Third, the measure of discrimination used in the current study assessed general discrimination without differentiating the source of perpetrators. Prior research has shown that perpetrators matter for adolescent development, and thus, future studies can incorporate more nuanced measures of discrimination (Benner & Graham, 2009). Lastly, we tried to incorporate the contextual and individual factors that may contribute to Chinese American adolescents’ perceptions of discrimination. Still, there are other contextual or individual factors that may play an important role that we did not explore. For example, adolescents’ perceptions of their neighborhood social processes and ethnic–racial identity may influence their discrimination experiences (Meca et al., 2020; Witherspoon et al., 2016). Future studies should include other relevant contextual and individual variables to better elucidate the complex associations to better represent Chinese American adolescents’ unique experiences.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite being model minorities, Chinese American adolescents face many psychological challenges and cultural stressors such as interpersonal discrimination across multiple contexts from different perpetrators. The current study contributes to the literature by examining the correlates of Chinese American adolescents’ discrimination experiences. We show that individual cultural characteristics, as well as family and neighborhood contexts, uniquely and jointly affect Chinese American adolescents’ discrimination experiences. Although Chinese American and Asian American individuals and youth may have once been invisibly oppressed, the current sociopolitical moment has heightened overt and covert discrimination and racism against these once assumed model minorities. These recent events rooted in historical oppression yield a clarion call to critically examine and understand Chinese American’s racialized experiences in the United States. With a better understanding, scholars can inform and practitioners can enact anti-racist prevention programs and interventions focused on system change in neighborhoods, families, and society at large, as well as interpersonal communication in families to enhance Chinese American adolescents’ psychological well-being and development.

Acknowledgments

Support for this research was provided through awards to Su Yeong Kim from (1) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 5R03HD051629-02, (2) Office of the Vice President for Research Grant/Special Research Grant from the University of Texas at Austin, (3) Jacobs Foundation Young Investigator Grant, (4) American Psychological Association Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs, Promoting Psychological Research and Training on Health Disparities Issues at Ethnic Minority Serving Institutions Grant, (5) American Psychological Foundation/Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology, Ruth G. and Joseph D. Matarazzo Grant, (6) California Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, Extended Education Fund, (7) American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, Massachusetts Avenue Building Assets Fund, and (8) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 5P2C HD042849-19 grant awarded to the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

Footnotes

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

We have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

1

Zipcodes are defined by the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mails; therefore, they only cover areas where U.S. mail service is provided. Moreover, zipcodes do not specify area boundaries and can be created or eliminated at any time. In comparison, a more reliable way to study neighborhood effect is to use census tracts, which are delineated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census and cover well-defined geographic areas that stay relatively stable over time. Furthermore, zipcodes cover a larger population size (on average 30000 population) than census tracts (on average 4000 population), which may create greater socioeconomic heterogeneity that can render the study of the neighborhood socioeconomic effect (Krieger et al., 2002).

Contributor Information

Shanting Chen, Northwestern University.

Wei Wei, The Pennsylvania State University.

Dawn P. Witherspoon, The Pennsylvania State University

Su Yeong Kim, University of Texas at Austin.

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