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Understanding the Intersectionality of COVID-19 Racism, Mental Distress, Alcohol Use, and Firearm Purchase Behavior Among Asian Americans

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Abstract

Firearm-related injuries are a major public health concern in the USA. Given the increased racism endured by Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, the current study aims to investigate the direct and indirect effects of racism, mental distress, and substance use on firearm purchase among Asian Americans. To fulfill this purpose, we collected data from a national sample of 916 Asian Americans in 2021. The study results showed that Asian Americans’ racism experience is directly related to increased mental distress, substance abuse, and firearm purchase. Both mental distress and alcohol use were also linked to firearm purchase. It was found that racism links to more mental distress and increased alcohol use, which in turn link to increased firearm purchases. The findings add new information on how racism can have compounded effects on mental distress and alcohol use in addition to firearm-related risk behavior among Asian Americans and posing serious public health concerns.

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Data Availability

Data will be made available upon request to ensure the privacy of the study participants.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the participants who have generously given their time to this study. Alice Jo and Rick Rainville provided editing and proofing assistance, and Sania Srivastava assisted with formatting and literature review.

Funding

This work was supported by Michigan Healthy Asian Americans Endowment Fund.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Health Disparities Innovation and Studies, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, USA

    Tsu-Yin Wu

  2. Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

    Hsing-Fang Hsieh, Patrick M. Carter & Marc Zimmerman

  3. School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

    Ken Resnicow & Marc Zimmerman

  4. Community Outreach and Engagement and Health Disparities Research, University of Michigan. School of Public Health and Rogel Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, USA

    Ken Resnicow

  5. Department of Emergency Medicine, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, USA

    Patrick M. Carter

  6. Psychology Department, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, USA

    Chong Man Chow

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  1. Tsu-Yin Wu
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Contributions

T-Y.W. and H-F.H. contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by T-Y.W. and H-F.H., and C.M.C. The first draft of the manuscript was written by T-Y.W. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tsu-Yin Wu.

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This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board of Eastern Michigan University. Informed consent was provided by all participants.

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Wu, TY., Hsieh, HF., Resnicow, K. et al. Understanding the Intersectionality of COVID-19 Racism, Mental Distress, Alcohol Use, and Firearm Purchase Behavior Among Asian Americans. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01874-1

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