Addressing Discrimination Against Asian American and Pacific Islander Youths: The Mental Health Provider’s Role

• Published in: Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Vol. 61; no. 6; pp. 735 - 738
• Main Authors: Shaligram, Deepika, Chou, Shinnyi, Chandra, Rohit M., Song, Suzan, Chan, Vivien
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.06.2022; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Acculturation; Adolescent; Adolescents; Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander; Asian Americans; Association (Psychology); Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Behavior Problems; Bullying; Caregiver Attitudes; Child Rearing; Community Relations; Coping; COVID-19; Cultural values; Depression (Psychology); Diaspora; Discrimination; Education; Educational Experience; Empathy; Employment; Ethnic groups; Ethnicity; Family Environment; Female; Health care; Hostility; Housing; Humans; Intelligence; Internment; Japanese Americans; Mental Health; Mental health professionals; Mental Health Programs; Microaggressions; Minority & ethnic groups; Minority groups; Multilingualism; Naturalization; Noncitizens; Pacific Islander people; Pacific Islanders; Parents; Parents & parenting; Perspective Taking; Prejudice; Problem Solving; Psychiatry; Public health; Racism; Riots; Social Discrimination - prevention & control; Social Discrimination - statistics & numerical data; Stereotypes; Stoicism; Students; United States; Women; World War II; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 0890-8567; 1527-5418
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2021.11.021

Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are the fastest growing racial minority in the United States. With more than 40 subgroups in the diaspora, 1 in 10 American youths will be of Asian origin by 2060. Racism—defined as prejudice, discrimination or antagonism on the basis of membership in a particular racial or ethnic group—is increasingly recognized as a public health crisis.1 Anti-AAPI racism, such as unequal resource distribution in housing, education, employment, and health care, exclusionary naturalization policies and violence1,2 (eg, Pacific coast riots, Japanese Americans’ internment during World War II, recent Atlanta shootings) is well documented. Anti-AAPI microaggressions—that is, the subtle, sometimes unintentional forms of racism such as characterizations as perpetual foreigners, ascriptions of intelligence, oversexualization of women, invalidated interethnic differences, and model minority myth—are common. The model minority stereotype dismisses real struggles1 and pits AAPIs against other racial minorities. Despite the proud tradition of AAPI activism , discrimination is often endured in silence, probably stemming from cultural values of stoicism and harmony, and tacit societal acceptance of racism.3