“Do Your Best to Avoid it”: Appraisals and Coping with Discrimination-Related Stress Among Older Chinese Immigrants in Affordable Senior Housings During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

This study investigated how older Chinese immigrants in affordable senior housing facilities (ASHs) appraise and cope with anti-Asian discrimination and related stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 26 participants aged over 65, analyzing verbatim transcripts and field notes using thematic analysis. Four major domains were identified: (1) discriminatory experience, (2) appraisals of discrimination stress, (3) coping strategies, and (4) rationales behind coping. Among the participants, 11 (42%) reported experiencing discrimination either personally or by someone they know. Participants’ appraisals of discrimination stress varied, and most of them opted for disengagement coping strategies (e.g., avoidance, rationalization) attributing them to health concerns, individual characteristics, environmental and societal factors, and low acculturation. The findings suggest the need for more social and community resources to enhance coping capacity and resilience in this vulnerable population.

KEYWORDS:

• Racial discrimination
• stress and coping
• older Chinese immigrants
• COVID-19

Acknowledgments

We thank the graduate student workers at the University of Southern California, Charlene Li, Luyan Yang, and Mutian Zhang, for their assistance with data collection and analysis for this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the USC Center for the Changing Family small grant for trainees. Grant number not applicable.