The inaccurate ascription of racial identity,or racial misclassification (Cambell & Troyer, 2007), is rooted instereotypes abouta racial group.Asian Americansare a vasty diverse group that includes multiracial, adopted, and others whochallenge Asian American stereotypes.There is a dearth of literature on the relation between racial misclassification and mental health symptoms. This study examined the relations between being perceived as Asian American and mental health symptom severity.474 Asian American adults (Mage = 30.25; SD = 8.19) completed an online survey. In the demographics section, we inquired about ascribed racial identification, “How often do people perceive you to be Asian American?” using a 5-point Likert scale (1 =hardly ever to5 = always).Mental health wasassessed with the PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C; Weathers et al., 1993) and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). The PCL-C was adapted to specifically query about problems that people have in response to “racial discrimination” (rather than “stressful life experiences” on the original measure).Aseries of one-way ANOVAs were conducted to investigate if there were significant differences in mental health symptoms between participants who are perceived to be Asian American“sometimes” (3),“frequently” (4), and “always” (5). There was a significant difference in trauma symptom severity scores between the groups,F(2, 460) = 3.138, p = .044. Tukey HSD post hoc testsindicated that the trauma symptom scores for participants who are “frequently” perceived to be Asian American (M = 32.36, SD = 14.62) were significantly higher than the participants who are “always” perceived to be Asian American (M = 28.83, SD = 13.36).There were also significant differences on anxiety symptom severity between the three groups, F(2, 465) = 4.505, p = .012. Similarly to the trauma symptom findings, Tukey HSD post hoc testsindicated that anxiety levels were significantly higher for participants “frequently”perceived to be Asian American (M = 7.83, SD = 8.71) compared to those who are “always” perceived to be Asian American (M = 5.53, SD = 6.89). There were no significant differences between the groups on depression or stress subscales of the DASS-21.Findings highlight that the extent to which one isperceived by others to be Asian Americanmay be related to racial trauma and anxiety symptoms.Development of coping skills for racial trauma and anxiety could involve naming and exploring Asian American clients’ experiences of and reactions to racial misclassification. Clinical implications and future directions will be further discussed.
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