Exploring the effect of in-group and out-group race-related stressors on anxiety among Asian Pacific Islander American students Sabine Elizabeth French 1 , Nellie Tran 2 , Noé Rubén Chávez 3 1 University of Illinois at Chicago 2 University of Massachusetts Lowell 3 Columbia University Medical Center Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sabine E. French, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1007 West Harrison (MC 285), Chicago, IL 60607-7137. E-mail: sefrench@uic.edu The authors thank the students for their participation in the study, the undergraduate research assistants for their work on the research team, and colleagues and the graduate students for their feedback on earlier drafts of the manuscript. doi: 10.1111/jasp.12028 Abstract This cross-sectional study examined (a) the impact of in-group (own-group con- formity pressure) and out-group (perceived discrimination, stereotype confirma- tion concern) race-related stressors; (b) the direct effect of 2 in-group- (private regard, centrality) and 1 out-group-oriented (public regard) racial identity factors; and (c) the potential protective role of these identity factors on the impact of stres- sors on the anxiety of Asian Pacific Islander American (API) college students attend- ing a racially diverse university. As predicted, positive feelings toward one’s own racial group (i.e., private regard) had a significant negative relationship with anxiety. Private regard protected APIs from own-group conformity pressures and stereotype confirmation concerns. Findings address the diverse university context that may create acculturative pressures or stereotype confirmation concern conditions. Much of the research on race-related stress among people of color has focused on stressors from out-group members. Little research has examined how in-group members might exert pressures on group members to conform to group ideals. The diversity of the student body on college campuses is increasing as the United States grows more racially and eth- nically diverse. In these settings, students can experience both in-group and out-group race-related stressors. Given that the supplement on the Surgeon General’s report on race and eth- nicity (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001) highlights the direct impact of racism and discrimina- tion on the mental health of Asian Pacific Islander Americans (APIs; e.g., increased anxiety), it is particularly important to understand how discrimination from both in-group and out- group members impacts the anxiety levels of APIs. The present study evaluates the impact of both in-group and out-group race-related stressors on the anxiety levels of API college students in a highly diverse university setting. Utilizing the multidimensional model of racial identity (Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, & Chavous, 1998), we argue that the racial identity factors that protect an indi- vidual from the negative effects of race-related stressors may vary by their association with either one’s in-group or out- group. The current research has three specific aims: (a) to examine the impact of in-group (own-group conformity pressure) and out-group (perceived discrimination, stere- otype confirmation concern) race-related stressors on the anxiety level of API college students; (b) to examine the direct effect of two in-group-oriented (private regard and centrality) and one out-group-oriented (public regard) racial identity factor on anxiety; and (c) to examine the potential protective role of these in-group-oriented and out-group-oriented identity factors on the impact of race- related stressors on anxiety. Impact of race-related stressors among Asian Pacific Islander Americans Race-related stressors can be grouped into four categories: (a) experiences with prejudice and discrimination; (b) awareness of a devalued quality of one’s social identity in society; (c) stereotype threat conditions involving awareness of specific stereotypes that others hold of one’s racial group, and the related anxiety/fear of confirming these stereotypes; and (d) attributional ambiguity involving a lack of clarity in situa- tions in which a stigmatized person is uncertain whether the treatment he or she receives is based on racial prejudice Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2013, 43, pp. E339–E350 © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2013, 43, pp. E339–E350