Roxanne Prichard, psychology and neuroscience professor at the University of St. Thomas College of Arts and Sciences, recently published a research brief in The Conversation on the topic of discrimination and its impact on Asian and Asian American students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
From the article:
Experiencing discrimination significantly harmed the well-being of Asian and Asian American college students in the U.S. during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s the key finding of our study, which compared over 6,000 survey responses from Asian and Asian American students who took the National College Health Assessment – an annual survey of student health behaviors – in the fall of 2019 and the fall of 2020. Our study focused only on Asians and Asian Americans. Others have found that both Asian and Native American ethnic groups experienced the highest rates of COVID-19-related discrimination.
We found that Asian and Asian American students experienced high levels of stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic. By fall 2020, 9% had a loved one who had died from COVID-19, 7% reported experiencing discriminatory behavior because of the pandemic, and 61% had pandemic-related financial stress. Compared with 2019, Asian students in 2020 reported significantly more insomnia and psychological distress.
