Chapter 8: Racial Climate and Psychological Distress in Asian Americans: The Question of Multiple Identities

Consistent findings indicate that at predominantly White universities, ethnic minority students evaluate campus racial climate as worse than what their White counterparts believe (Ancis, Sedlacek, & Mohr, 2000; Rankin & Reason, 2005; Reid & Radhakrishnan, 2003). Given students from differing racial backgrounds will assess racial climates negatively in different ways (Jones, Castellanos, & Cole, 2002) it is known that students with particular social identities will often differ from mainstream students’ evaluations. Moreover, the idea that racial minority identity or status is related to a sensitivity and understanding of racial climate results in a new research question asking whether students from multiple minority backgrounds incur higher levels of psychological distress or perceive racial climate to be worse.