Invisible Disparities: Social Class Discrimination and Developmental Outcomes among Asian American Adolescents
Jo Nisa Cabilogan, Abraham Tou Jang Moua, Dania Smith, Bingyue Tan, Jayline Jimenez Flores, Chan Nguyen, Jesse Townsend Wilson, Jessica Tu Ly, Martin Diego Garcia, Vanesa Beatriz Ramirez-Cinto
Department of Psychology
Faculty Supervisor: Zena R. Mello
We investigated the association between social class discrimination and developmental outcomes among Asian American adolescents. Social class discrimination is the bias that individuals experience due to being disadvantaged in social class. To date, no study has focused on social class discrimination among Asian Americans. Thus, we sought to answer: (a) How is social class discrimination associated with academic achievement and mental health among Asian American adolescents? Participants were 293 Asian American adolescents (Mage = 16.12 years, SDage = 1.27). Genders included cisgender boys (54.79%), cisgender girls (40.07%), transgender girls (2.05%), transgender boys (1.71%), and gender queer/nonbinary (1.37%). We developed a new scale to measure social class discrimination from various sources. The scale comprised five subscales, including Teacher, Classmate, Teenager, Friend, and Community Member. The scores were calculated by averaging the non-missing responses. Higher scores indicated more social class discrimination. Academic achievement was measured through Grade Point Average. Mental health was measured using established anxiety and self-esteem scales. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that social class discrimination was negatively associated with academic achievement and anxiety, but not self-esteem. Results have implications for developing interventions addressing social class discrimination in schools to enhance the academic and mental health outcomes of Asian American adolescents.