Impact of COVID-19 Discrimination Fear on Psychological Distress Among East Asian College Students: The Moderating Role of Emotion Regulation

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to heightened discrimination and xenophobia against Asian Americans in the United States. Mainstream media have reported that East Asian individuals are increasingly fearful of becoming victims of anti-Asian discrimination. However, few studies have examined the fear of experiencing discrimination, especially among youths and young adults. This study examined the extent to which East Asian first-year college students in the United States have experienced the fear of anti-Asian discrimination during the pandemic, its impact on anxiety and depressive symptoms, and whether emotion regulation strategies moderated the relationship between the fear of discrimination and psychological distress. Participants completed a cross-sectional online survey (n = 139; M_age = 17.90; SD = 0.62; 64% female) and reported high levels of fears, with 40.3% and 29.5% of the participants endorsing “quite a bit” or “extremely” on worries about being harassed or not feeling physically safe due to COVID-19, respectively. Female students endorsed higher levels of fear than male students. We found that cognitive reappraisal moderated the relations between the fear of discrimination and depressive symptoms, such that higher levels of cognitive reappraisal buffered the detrimental effects of this fear on depressive symptoms. Similarly, emotion suppression moderated the relations between the fear of discrimination and distress, such that higher levels of emotion suppression were associated with lower levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. These results highlight the need for university administrators and faculty to address East Asian firstyear college students’ high levels of fears related to experiencing anti-Asian discrimination during the pandemic.