COVID discrimination experience: Chinese Canadians' social identities moderate the effect of personal and group discrimination on well-being.

OBJECTIVE: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has amplified preexisting racism and xenophobia. In this study, we investigated (a) whether perceived personal and group discrimination make distinct contributions to Chinese Canadians' negative affect and concern that the heightened discrimination they experienced during the pandemic will continue after the pandemic; (b) whether Canadian and Chinese identities and social support moderate the effect of discrimination on this concern; and (c) whether race-based rejection sensitivity (RS) explains why each type of discrimination predicts negative affect and expectation of future discrimination. METHOD: A sample of Chinese Canadian adults across Canadian provinces (N = 516; Mage = 42.74, 53.3% females) completed a questionnaire assessing personal and group discrimination, Chinese and Canadian identity, a short form of race-based RS, negative affect, and expectation of future discrimination. RESULTS: Personal and group discrimination were intercorrelated and positively associated with negative emotion and expectation of future discrimination. Chinese Canadians who identified more strongly as Chinese experienced a less adverse impact related to group discrimination. However, those who identified more (vs. less) strongly as Canadians were more likely to be impacted by personal discrimination. Finally, path analysis revealed that both personal and group discrimination were positively associated with RS, which in turn predicted an expectation that long-lasting racism would continue after the pandemic. CONCLUSION: Group and personal discrimination play different roles in Chinese Canadians' experiences during and expectations after the pandemic. Maintaining Chinese identity can be beneficial to Chinese Canadians, particularly in mitigating the negative effect of group discrimination during the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Ethnic minority, immigrants, and Indigenous people's well-being disparities in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of threat perceptions.

The COVID-19 pandemic's differential impact on ethnic minorities, immigrants, and Indigenous people (e.g., mortality and infection rate, as well as psychological well-being) may exacerbate existing disparities. This study examined perceived threat as a psychological mechanism to explain the apparently more negative emotional experiences of ethnic minority Canadians during the pandemic compared with non-immigrant European Canadians (i.e., the majority/mainstream ethno-cultural group). We investigated group differences in negative affect and three possible threat mechanisms (perceived health, material, and cultural threat) for these differences using an online survey completed by a self-selected Canadian sample (N = 1,918). The results suggest that compared to the non-immigrant European Canadian group, ethnic minority members, immigrants, and Indigenous people have on average perceived higher levels of pandemic threat, which in turn is associated with negative affect. These findings support the hypothesis that the amount of threat perceived by different groups during the pandemic might partially explain reported group differences in well-being.