RESEARCH ARTICLE
Examination of the “model minority” stereotype through ethnicity and sexual orientation heterogeneity among Asian American youth
Stephen T. Russell,
Amy L. McCurdy,
Stephen T. Russell
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Population Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Amy L. McCurdy
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Population Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Correspondence Amy L. McCurdy, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Population Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, 108 E Dean Keeton St, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorStephen T. Russell,
Amy L. McCurdy,
Stephen T. Russell
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Population Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Amy L. McCurdy
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Population Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Correspondence Amy L. McCurdy, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Population Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, 108 E Dean Keeton St, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Introduction
The “model minority” stereotype disguises heterogeneity among Asian American youth, many of whom are harmed by policies and attitudes that assume this population to be uniformly high achieving and “problem free.” The current study uses an intersectional lens to disaggregate this population by ethnicity and sexual orientation subgroups to demonstrate differences in academic performance and substance use behavior among Asian American youth. This study also investigates the extent to which racial/ethnicity and sexual orientation-based bullying may explain such links.
Methods
Participants included 65,091 Asian American youth (46.41% Southeast Asian; 37.01% East Asian; 16.58% South Asian) in grades 6–12, who were part of the California Healthy Kids Survey (2015–2017). Participants were 49.4% female and about a third each were in grades 6–8, grades 9–10, and grades 11–12. School-based surveys were administered. Youth reported on substance use, grades, and bias-based bullying experiences in the past 12 months.
Results
Generalized linear mixed-effects model results showed that outcomes varied widely across youth ethnicity and sexual orientation subgroups. Inclusion of racial/ethnic and sexual orientation bullying in these models attenuated the direct effects between ethnic and sexual identities and academic performance and substance use outcomes.
Conclusions
Implications of this work suggest that research and policy should not treat Asian American students as uniformly high-performing and low-risk, because the experiences of those who deviate from these assumptions will be left undetected. Interventions targeting bias-based bullying may be able to reduce disparities in academic and substance use outcomes among Asian American youth.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study. The data that support the findings of this study are available from WestEd. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for this study.
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Citing Literature
