Asian American parents’ pandemic-related discrimination and cultural orientation: Longitudinal effects on children's adjustment problem.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated anti-Asian racism, which was associated with adverse mental health outcomes among Asian Americans that disrupted parenting and parent–child relationships. While both acculturation to the mainstream culture and enculturation within one's heritage cultures can foster resilience for Asian American parents facing discrimination, limited research investigates how parents’ cultural orientation influences the relationship between pandemic-related discrimination experiences and children's internalizing and externalizing problems over time. This study assessed the pandemic-related discrimination of 271 Asian American parents (Mage = 41.18, range = 25–74 years; 80.8% mothers) and its associations with children's internalizing and externalizing problems 6 months later, examining parental cultural orientation (i.e., acculturation, enculturation) as a moderator. Results showed that parents’ pandemic-related discrimination at baseline significantly predicted the child's internalizing (β =.17, p <.05) and externalizing problems at 6 months follow-up (β =.21, p <.001). Two significant interactions emerged: High levels of pandemic-related discrimination at baseline and high levels of acculturation were associated with more child internalizing problems at 6 months (+1 SD: β =.29, p <.05), and pandemic-related discrimination at baseline on child externalizing problems at 6 months at low (−1 SD: β =.09, p <.05) and high (+1 SD: β =.32, p <.01) levels of the parent's acculturation. No significant interactions emerged for parents’ enculturation. Findings highlight how sociocultural contexts uniquely shaped these families’ dynamics, underscoring the need for culturally informed clinical interventions addressing anti-Asian racism's manifestations across systemic, individual, and interpersonal levels.