The pathways from perceived discrimination to self-rated health among the Chinese diaspora during the COVID-19 pandemic: investigation of the roles of depression, anxiety, and social support

BACKGROUND: Research indicates the adverse impacts of perceived discrimination on health, and discrimination inflamed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a type of social exclusion, could affect the well-being of the Chinese diaspora. We analyzed the relationship and pathways of perceived discrimination’s eff...

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Autores principales: Chen, Youli, Wang, Zicong, Dong, Weizhen, Xu, Jia Huei Chen, Wu, Sizhe Ji, Zhang, Xiangyang, Chen, Chun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8401352/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34454508
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-021-01537-9
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author Chen, Youli
Wang, Zicong
Dong, Weizhen
Xu, Jia Huei Chen
Wu, Sizhe Ji
Zhang, Xiangyang
Chen, Chun
author_facet Chen, Youli
Wang, Zicong
Dong, Weizhen
Xu, Jia Huei Chen
Wu, Sizhe Ji
Zhang, Xiangyang
Chen, Chun
author_sort Chen, Youli
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Research indicates the adverse impacts of perceived discrimination on health, and discrimination inflamed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a type of social exclusion, could affect the well-being of the Chinese diaspora. We analyzed the relationship and pathways of perceived discrimination’s effect on health among the Chinese diaspora in the context of the pandemic to contribute to the literature on discrimination in this population under the global public health crisis. METHODS: We analyzed data from 705 individuals of Chinese descent residing in countries outside of China who participated in a cross-sectional online survey between April 22 and May 9, 2020. This study utilized a structural equation model (SEM) to evaluate both direct and indirect effects of perceived discrimination on self-rated health (SRH) and to assess the mediating roles of psychological distress (namely, anxiety and depression) and social support from family and friends. RESULTS: This online sample comprised predominantly young adults and those of relatively high socioeconomic status. This study confirmed the total and direct effect of recently perceived discrimination on SRH and found the indirect effect was mainly mediated by depression. Mediating roles of anxiety and social support on the discrimination-health relationship were found insignificant in this SEM. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest discrimination negatively affected the well-being of the Chinese diaspora, and depression acted as a major mediator between the discrimination-health relationship. Therefore, interventions for reducing discrimination to preserve the well-being of the Chinese diaspora are necessary. Prompt intervention to address depression may partially relieve the disease burden caused by the surge of discrimination. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12939-021-01537-9.
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spelling pubmed-84013522021-08-30 The pathways from perceived discrimination to self-rated health among the Chinese diaspora during the COVID-19 pandemic: investigation of the roles of depression, anxiety, and social support Chen, Youli Wang, Zicong Dong, Weizhen Xu, Jia Huei Chen Wu, Sizhe Ji Zhang, Xiangyang Chen, Chun Int J Equity Health Research BACKGROUND: Research indicates the adverse impacts of perceived discrimination on health, and discrimination inflamed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a type of social exclusion, could affect the well-being of the Chinese diaspora. We analyzed the relationship and pathways of perceived discrimination’s effect on health among the Chinese diaspora in the context of the pandemic to contribute to the literature on discrimination in this population under the global public health crisis. METHODS: We analyzed data from 705 individuals of Chinese descent residing in countries outside of China who participated in a cross-sectional online survey between April 22 and May 9, 2020. This study utilized a structural equation model (SEM) to evaluate both direct and indirect effects of perceived discrimination on self-rated health (SRH) and to assess the mediating roles of psychological distress (namely, anxiety and depression) and social support from family and friends. RESULTS: This online sample comprised predominantly young adults and those of relatively high socioeconomic status. This study confirmed the total and direct effect of recently perceived discrimination on SRH and found the indirect effect was mainly mediated by depression. Mediating roles of anxiety and social support on the discrimination-health relationship were found insignificant in this SEM. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest discrimination negatively affected the well-being of the Chinese diaspora, and depression acted as a major mediator between the discrimination-health relationship. Therefore, interventions for reducing discrimination to preserve the well-being of the Chinese diaspora are necessary. Prompt intervention to address depression may partially relieve the disease burden caused by the surge of discrimination. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12939-021-01537-9. BioMed Central 2021-08-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8401352/ /pubmed/34454508 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-021-01537-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Chen, Youli
Wang, Zicong
Dong, Weizhen
Xu, Jia Huei Chen
Wu, Sizhe Ji
Zhang, Xiangyang
Chen, Chun
The pathways from perceived discrimination to self-rated health among the Chinese diaspora during the COVID-19 pandemic: investigation of the roles of depression, anxiety, and social support
title The pathways from perceived discrimination to self-rated health among the Chinese diaspora during the COVID-19 pandemic: investigation of the roles of depression, anxiety, and social support
title_full The pathways from perceived discrimination to self-rated health among the Chinese diaspora during the COVID-19 pandemic: investigation of the roles of depression, anxiety, and social support
title_fullStr The pathways from perceived discrimination to self-rated health among the Chinese diaspora during the COVID-19 pandemic: investigation of the roles of depression, anxiety, and social support
title_full_unstemmed The pathways from perceived discrimination to self-rated health among the Chinese diaspora during the COVID-19 pandemic: investigation of the roles of depression, anxiety, and social support
title_short The pathways from perceived discrimination to self-rated health among the Chinese diaspora during the COVID-19 pandemic: investigation of the roles of depression, anxiety, and social support
title_sort pathways from perceived discrimination to self-rated health among the chinese diaspora during the covid-19 pandemic: investigation of the roles of depression, anxiety, and social support
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8401352/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34454508
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-021-01537-9
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