Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Aug;10(4):1947-1954.
doi: 10.1007/s40615-022-01376-6. Epub 2022 Aug 1.

Anti-Asian Attitudes in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: an Exploratory Study

Kerstin Pahl  1   2 , John Wang  3   4 , Navin Sanichar  1 , Sharifa Williams  1 , Gilbert A Nick  1 , Lisa Wang  5 , Helen-Maria Lekas  1   2
Affiliations

Anti-Asian Attitudes in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: an Exploratory Study

Kerstin Pahl et al. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2023 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this paper was to measure if people with greater "structural literacy," as indicated by greater awareness of racial and socioeconomic disparities in COVID-19 impact, would hold fewer negative attitudes against those perceived to be Asian in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A survey was administered between April and August 2020 to participants from two longitudinal cohorts in New York State. The survey assessed anti-Asian attitudes relating to COVID-19, awareness of racial and socioeconomic disparities in COVID-19, residential location, socioeconomic status, and other demographic information. The sample included 233 Black, Latinx, and White midlife adults from urban, suburban, and rural New York neighborhoods. Multivariable regression modeling was used to assess associations between COVID-19 disparities awareness, an indicator of structural literacy, and anti-Asian attitudes, adjusting for gender, race/ethnicity, residential location, and socioeconomic disadvantage.

Results: Greater awareness of disparities in COVID-19 was associated with lower levels of anti-Asian attitudes after adjustment (adj-slope = - 0.358, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Greater structural literacy, as measured by awareness of socioeconomic and racial disparities in COVID-19 impact, was associated with fewer anti-Asian attitudes among Black, Latinx, and White adults.

Implications: Increasing structural literacy may reduce anti-Asian attitudes that motivate harmful acts against oppressed groups.

Keywords: COVID-19; Health disparities; Public health; Race; Xenophobia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Average structural literacy score by race/ethnicity and gender
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Average anti-Asian attitudes score by race/ethnicity and gender. Anti-Asian attitudes score is log-transformed
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Markel H, Stern AM. The foreignness of germs: the persistent association of immigrants and disease in American society. Milbank Q. 2002;80(4):757–v. doi: 10.1111/1468-0009.00030. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhang D. Sinophobic epidemics in America: Historical discontinuity in disease-related Yellow Peril imaginaries of the past and present. J Med Humanit. 2021;42(1):63–80. doi: 10.1007/s10912-020-09675-x. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pfaelzer J. Driven out: the forgotten war against Chinese Americans. New York, NY: Random House; 2007.
    1. Lew-Williams B. The Chinese must go: violence, exclusion, and the making of the alien in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 2018.
    1. Jeung R. Stop AAPI Hate National Report. [online] Stop AAPI Hate.org. https://stopaapihate.org/national-report-through-september-2021/; Published 2021. Accessed 1 Aug 2021.

Publication types