Skip to main content
ABCT 2024 58th Annual Convention Main banner
Psychology Tools Ad
Final Program


Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
Recorded Session
Recorded Session
Ticketed Session
Ticketed Session
Back
ViewAttendees 1

Symposia

Healing / Resilience

Exploring Racial Trauma and Radical Healing in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Communities: Mixed Methods Investigations

4 - (SYM 45) Collective Trauma Requires Collective Healing: The Association Between Racial Trauma and Radical Healing in Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders

Friday, November 15, 2024
12:30 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Location: Congress B, Fourth Floor, Loews Hotel
Abstract Body
The COVID-19 pandemic along with increased anti-Asian violence and discrimination exacerbated mental health needs among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs). Westernized conceptualizations of coping have posited that seeking professional psychotherapy services are the ideal response to addressing mental health needs. However, scholars have critiqued this limited form of coping that is plagued with access barriers, and instead advocated for the conceptualizing of healing through a more collectivistic and culturally-grounded framework. Thus, in the present study, we sought to examine how experiences of racial trauma in AANHPIs may be associated with constructs of radical healing, a framework that supports the understanding of how communities of color resist racism. We hypothesized that racial trauma symptoms would be positively associated with radical healing, which includes five pathways: collectivism, critical consciousness, radical hope, strength and resistance, and cultural authenticity and self-knowledge. Participants were 459 AANHPI adults who completed a cross-sectional survey comprising questionnaires that assessed each study variable. A multivariate regression was conducted to examine the association between symptoms of racial trauma and pathways of radical healing in AANHPIs. Racial trauma was significantly associated with some pathways of radical healing, and not others. Specifically, racial trauma symptoms were positively associated with critical motivation, critical action sociopolitical participation, collectivism, cultural authenticity and self-knowledge, and radical hope. Racial trauma was not associated with perceived inequality or egalitarianism dimensions of critical consciousness, or strength and resistance. AANHPIs who experience racial trauma may respond to the oppressive nature of racism by engaging in radical healing. Findings suggest the importance of promoting radical healing through programs and interventions to support AANHPIs in healing from the negative impacts of racial trauma.