IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v69y2023i7p1723-1735.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Experiences of racial microaggression among immigrant and Canadian-born young adults: Effects of double stigma on mental health and service use

Author

Listed:
  • Ruo Ying Feng
  • Amanda Krygsman
  • Tracy Vaillancourt
  • Irene Vitoroulis

Abstract

Background: Significant disparities in utilization of mental health services exist among immigrant and Canadian-born populations. These gaps may be associated with a ‘double stigma’ – stigma related to being from a racialized background exacerbated by mental health stigma. Immigrant young adults may be particularly susceptible to this phenomenon, given developmental and social transitions from adolescence to adulthood. Aims: To investigate the joint effects of racial microaggression and mental health stigma on mental health and service use among first-generation immigrant and Canadian-born university students. Method: We conducted an online cross-sectional study among first-generation immigrant and Canadian-born university students (N = 1,280, M age  = 19.10, SD  = 1.50). Results: Despite no differences in anxiety or depression symptoms, first-generation (foreign-born) immigrants were less likely to have received therapy and to have taken medication for mental health issues compared to Canadian-born participants. First-generation immigrants also reported experiencing higher levels of racial microaggression and stigma toward service use. Results suggest the presence of a double stigma, mental health stigma and racial microaggression, each explained significant additional variance in symptoms of anxiety and depression and medication use. No effects of double stigma for therapy use were found – while higher mental health stigma predicted lower use of therapy, racial microaggression did not predict unique variance in therapy use. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the joint effects of racial microaggression and stigma toward mental health and service as barriers to help-seeking among immigrant young adults. Mental health intervention and outreach programmes should target overt and covert forms of racial discrimination while incorporating culturally sensitive anti-stigma approaches to help reduce disparities in mental health service use among immigrants in Canada.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruo Ying Feng & Amanda Krygsman & Tracy Vaillancourt & Irene Vitoroulis, 2023. "Experiences of racial microaggression among immigrant and Canadian-born young adults: Effects of double stigma on mental health and service use," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 69(7), pages 1723-1735, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:69:y:2023:i:7:p:1723-1735
    DOI: 10.1177/00207640231174374
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00207640231174374
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00207640231174374?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sarah Krill Williston & Jennifer H Martinez & Tahirah Abdullah, 2019. "Mental health stigma among people of color: An examination of the impact of racial discrimination," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(6), pages 458-467, September.
    2. Bharadwaj, Prashant & Pai, Mallesh M. & Suziedelyte, Agne, 2017. "Mental health stigma," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 57-60.
    3. Jehonathan Ben & Donna Cormack & Ricci Harris & Yin Paradies, 2017. "Racism and health service utilisation: A systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(12), pages 1-22, December.
    4. Spencer, M.S. & Chen, J. & Gee, G.C. & Fabian, C.G. & Takeuchi, D.T., 2010. "Discrimination and mental health-related service use in a national study of Asian Americans," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(12), pages 2410-2417.
    5. Yin Paradies & Jehonathan Ben & Nida Denson & Amanuel Elias & Naomi Priest & Alex Pieterse & Arpana Gupta & Margaret Kelaher & Gilbert Gee, 2015. "Racism as a Determinant of Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-48, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nazan Ulusoy & Anja Schablon, 2020. "Discrimination in In-Patient Geriatric Care: A Qualitative Study on the Experiences of Employees with a Turkish Migration Background," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-14, March.
    2. S. Michelle Ogunwole & Habibat A. Oguntade & Kelly M. Bower & Lisa A. Cooper & Wendy L. Bennett, 2023. "Health Experiences of African American Mothers, Wellness in the Postpartum Period and Beyond (HEAL): A Qualitative Study Applying a Critical Race Feminist Theoretical Framework," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(13), pages 1-29, July.
    3. Cave, Leah & Cooper, Matthew N. & Zubrick, Stephen R. & Shepherd, Carrington C.J., 2020. "Racial discrimination and child and adolescent health in longitudinal studies: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    4. Yuqi Wang & Laurent Reyes & Emily A. Greenfield & Sarah R. Allred, 2022. "Municipal Ethnic Composition and Disparities in COVID-19 Infections in New Jersey: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-25, October.
    5. van Ooijen, R. & Alessi, R. & Knoef, M., 2015. "Health status over the life cycle," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 15/21, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    6. Malat, Jennifer & Mayorga-Gallo, Sarah & Williams, David R., 2018. "The effects of whiteness on the health of whites in the USA," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 148-156.
    7. Hamed, Sarah & Bradby, Hannah & Thapar-Björkert, Suruchi & Ahlberg, Beth Maina, 2024. "Healthcare staff's racialized talk: The perpetuation of racism in healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 355(C).
    8. Caryn N. Bell & Jordan Kerr & Jessica L. Young, 2019. "Associations between Obesity, Obesogenic Environments, and Structural Racism Vary by County-Level Racial Composition," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-17, March.
    9. Elizabeth A. Minton, 2022. "Pandemics and consumers' mental well‐being," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 5-14, March.
    10. Ricci B Harris & James Stanley & Donna M Cormack, 2018. "Racism and health in New Zealand: Prevalence over time and associations between recent experience of racism and health and wellbeing measures using national survey data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-22, May.
    11. Slaughter-Acey, Jaime C. & Brown, Tony N. & Keith, Verna M. & Dailey, Rhonda & Misra, Dawn P., 2020. "A tale of two generations: Maternal skin color and adverse birth outcomes in Black/African American women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    12. Lisa Jamieson & Dandara Haag & Helena Schuch & Kostas Kapellas & Rui Arantes & W. Murray Thomson, 2020. "Indigenous Oral Health Inequalities at an International Level: A Commentary," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-6, June.
    13. Jorge M. Agüero & Veronica Frisancho, 2022. "Measuring Violence against Women with Experimental Methods," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(4), pages 1565-1590.
    14. Lubna Rashid & Silvia Cepeda-García, 2021. "Self-Categorising and Othering in Migrant Integration: The Case of Entrepreneurs in Berlin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-14, February.
    15. Uršula Lipovec Čebron, 2021. "Language as a Trigger for Racism: Language Barriers at Healthcare Institutions in Slovenia," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, March.
    16. Jill Furzer & Elizabeth Dhuey & Audrey Laporte, 2022. "ADHD misdiagnosis: Causes and mitigators," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(9), pages 1926-1953, September.
    17. D'Costa, Ieta & Truong, Mandy & Russell, Lynette & Adams, Karen, 2023. "Employee perceptions of race and racism in an Australian hospital," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 339(C).
    18. Hummels, David & Munch, Jakob R. & Xiang, Chong, 2016. "No Pain, No Gain: The Effects of Exports on Effort, Injury, and Illness," IZA Discussion Papers 10036, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Bastos, João L. & Harnois, Catherine E. & Paradies, Yin C., 2018. "Health care barriers, racism, and intersectionality in Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 209-218.
    20. Jill Furzer & Boriana Miloucheva, 2020. "The Long Arm of the Clean Air Act: Pollution Abatement and COVID-19 Racial Disparities," Working Papers tecipa-668, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:69:y:2023:i:7:p:1723-1735. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.