To Be in Harmony: Chinese American Adolescents’ and Parents’ Bicultural Integration During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Experiences of racial discrimination have been found to be associated with internalizing problems among ethnic–racial minority youth. However, mediating and moderating processes that might explain this association is less well understood. Thus, the present study aimed to examine whether Chinese American adolescents’ bicultural identity integration harmony (BII-Harmony) mediated the association between their experiences of racial discrimination and internalizing behaviors. Furthermore, we examined the moderating role of their parents’ BII-Harmony in this mediation model. Chinese American adolescents (Mₐgₑ = 13.9 years; SD = 2.3; 48% female) reported their experiences of racial discrimination and BII-Harmony, and their parents (Mₐgₑ = 46.2 years; SD = 5.2; 81% mothers) reported their BII-Harmony and their children’s internalizing difficulties. Chinese American adolescents’ racial discrimination experiences were negatively associated with BII-Harmony, and in turn, more internalizing problems, but only when their parents also reported low and mean levels of BII-Harmony.