Do Asian American women and men differ in their response to stress? Discrimination, Financial Strain and Mental Health

This study examines gender response theory in the association between discrimination and mental health among Asian Americans. The research design employs two mental health outcomes: depression, an internalizing mental health problem more likely to affect women; and smoking, an externalizing mental health problem more likely to affect men. Results show that discrimination has a positive, yet uniform effect on depression and smoking, resulting in more gender similarities than differences. An additional stressor, financial strain, is used to test if discrimination operates like other stressors or has a distinct effect on mental health. The effects of financial strain follow a similar overall pattern compared with discrimination. However, gender significantly moderates the association between financial strain and depression characterized by a larger effect on depression among Asian American men, not women. The implications of the generalizability of gender response theory across and within racial and ethnic populations are discussed.