User:Hanjiaxin Bao/sandbox

Self-esteem, defined as people’s self-judgment of their worth and value, plays a significant part in Asian Americans’ psychological well-being. A number of researches including the ones conducted by Asian American and Pacific Islander Research on Education (CARE) have revealed that Asian Americans are suffering from lower self-esteem and higher level of depression, and the problem of low self-esteem is more serious among Immigrant Asian Americans, including both the first generation immigrants and the US-born Asians with immigrant parents.

Low self-esteem can lead to a number of negative outcomes. For example, Zhou and Bankston’s research on the connection between the academic performance and state of self-esteem of Asian American students indicates that self-esteem is negatively linked with the level of stress and angst and that Asian American students are more easily to suffer from depression, insecure and fear of failure.

Many factors might contribute to the low self-esteem of Asian Americans. Tifarodi and Swann (2006) contended that one of the factors is the collective cultural identity derived from fundamental Asian cultures such as Confucianism. As is argued by Wang and Ollendick, in contrast to the individualist culture commonly found in the United States which stresses person’s uniqueness and independence, the collective culture in Asian society underscores one’s membership in social groups, and Asian Americans tend to build self-esteem more on others’ evaluations and attitudes , instead of their personal achievements. Another influencing factor comes from family. A research conducted by Sue, S. and S. Okazaki in 1990 indicate that compared with white parents, Asian American parents have more control and authority over their children, while offering children less encouragements, which plays a role in the low self-esteem of many Asian American students. The influence of authoritative parenting is more notable in Immigrant Asian Americans. Zhou and Bankston found that, trying to build their place and identity in a new environment through the achievement of their children, many immigrant parents have higher expectation for their children, which results in parental pressure that results in not only higher academic performance but greater stress and lower self-esteem. Additionally, apart from the historical racial incidents including Anti-Asian movements and Anti-immigration legislation, Asian Americans are also victims of racism as many other minorities in the United States such as the bias among employers and many stereotypes. As is argued by Chih, the racism and discrimination leads to the feeling of depression and shame. However, it is reported that Asian Americans’ own perception of racism against them is limited and the problem and needs caused by racism are often neglected by society, masked by stereotypes such as “model minority” and “honorary whites”. An important and positive factor is Asian Americans’ ethnic identity. It has been reported that self-esteem is positively related to people’s ethnic identity and the extent of exploring ethnic identity. A research conducted by Umaña-Taylor and Fine in 2002 shows that self cognition from effective self-exploring and the attempt to build racial perception and ethnic identity is conductive to enhancing the self-esteem of minority population including Asian Americans. Topic: Low self-esteem of Asian Americans, as an additional section in the "mental health" part in the page "[null Health status of Asian Americans]".

Being a significant part in the American population, Asian American's mental health has received inadequate attention. One mental problem shared by the majority of Asian Americans is low self-esteem which has significantly affected their lives, identities and performances. This section would introduce the causes and the outward  manifestations of the low self-esteem of Asian Americans. This section would be added to the page “Health status of Asian Americans”, under the section of “Mental Health”.

Reference:

1.     Shek, Y. , & Mcewen, M. (2012). The relationships of racial identity and gender role conflict to self-esteem of asian american undergraduate men. Journal of College Student Development, 53(5), 703-718.

2.     Bankston, C. , & Zhou, M. (2002). Being well vs. doing well: Self‐esteem and school performance among immigrant and nonimmigrant racial and ethnic groups. International Migration Review, 36(2), 389-415.

3.     Asian American X - an Intersection of Twenty-First Century Asian American Voices. (2010). n.p.:

4.     Shek, Y. , & Mcewen, M. (2012). The relationships of racial identity and gender role conflict to self-esteem of asian american undergraduate men. Journal of College Student Development, 53(5), 703-718.

5.     Xu, Y. , Farver, J. , & Pauker, K. (2015). Ethnic identity and self‐esteem among asian and european americans: When a minority is the majority and the majority is a minority. European Journal of Social Psychology, 45(1), 62-76.

6.     Leverenz, D. (2012). Honor Bound : Race and Shame in America. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.

7.     Cottle, T. (1980). Children's Secrets. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press.

8.     Sue, S. , Yan Cheng, J. , Saad, C. , & Chu, J. (2012). Asian american mental health: A call to action. The American Psychologist, 67(7), 532.

9.     Teng, Z. , Liu, Y. , & Guo, C. (2015). A meta-analysis of the relationship between self-esteem and aggression among chinese students. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 21, 45-54.

10.  Leu, J. , Walton, E. , & Takeuchi, D. (2011). Contextualizing acculturation: Gender, family, and community reception influences on asian immigrant mental health. American Journal of Community Psychology, 48(3-4), 168-180.

11.  hooks, b. (2003). Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope / Bell Hooks. New York: Routledge.

FEEDBACK:

This is great Bao. I can't wait to see it go live.