Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has made historically rooted anti-Asian racism, xenophobia, and civic activism in the United States highly salient, creating a heightened need for Asian American youth to redress racial injustice through civic engagement. However, little is known about Chinese American adolescents’ civic engagement in response to racial discrimination. The present study investigated the age-varying associations between Chinese American adolescents’ experiences of COVID-19-related racial discrimination and their political civic engagement at the intersection of race and gender, as well as the moderating roles of ethnic identity affirmation and parental civic socialization in these associations. The participants were 295 10- to 18-year-old Chinese American adolescents (Mage = 14.1 years, SD = 2.2 years; 52% girls) and their parents (Mage = 44.2 years, SD = 6.0 years; 79% mothers). Time-varying effect modeling showed that experiences of racial discrimination were negatively associated with political civic engagement in middle adolescence. This negative association was found only among girls but not boys. High ethnic identity affirmation and parental civic socialization not only buffered Chinese American adolescents against the impact of racial discrimination but even promoted their greater political civic engagement across adolescence. These findings revealed the age trends and important individual and contextual facilitators of Chinese American adolescents’ political civic participation in the context of the racialized pandemic of COVID-19, which can inform culturally and developmentally targeted education and intervention efforts that promote the civic development of Chinese American adolescents.
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This study was supported by the National Science Foundation (Award No. 2024124).
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X.Z. designed the study, collected and analyzed the data, drafted and revised the manuscript; C.S.L.C. designed and supervised the broader project, contributed to data interpretation, and revised the manuscript; H.R. collected the data, provided statistical support, and revised the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Zong, X., Cheah, C.S.L. & Ren, H. Age-Varying Associations Between COVID-19-Related Racial Discrimination and Chinese American Adolescents’ Political Civic Engagement. J. Youth Adolescence 53, 446–458 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01879-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01879-3