Gendered racism, family and external shame, depressive symptoms, and alcohol use severity among Asian American men.

OBJECTIVE

We investigated whether gendered racism predicts depressive symptoms and alcohol use severity among Asian American men (AAM) through indirect relations via culture-specific family and external shame.

METHOD

We analyzed convenience data from 409 AAM. Sample age ( = 21.24), nativity, ethnicity, education, income, and self-reported social class were diverse and controlled for. We path modeled direct associations among gendered racism and depressive symptoms and alcohol use severity, and their indirect (mediated) associations through family and external shame.

RESULTS

About 21% and 25% of the sample met the clinical cutoffs for depressive symptoms and risky alcohol use, respectively. Gendered racism predicted depressive symptoms indirectly via external shame, and predicted alcohol use severity directly and indirectly via family shame. The hypothesized model fits the data better than an alternative model with shame factors as predictors.

CONCLUSION

Gendered racism is an insidious psychiatric risk factor for AAM and appears to exacerbate family and external shame, which may subsequently and divergently increase depressive symptoms and alcohol use severity. Findings highlight the role of cultural factors within gendered racism-related stress processes among AAM. Future research should consider longitudinal designs and additional mediating and outcome variables to examine the behavioral health sequelae of gendered racism among AAM. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).