Resilience Amid Racialized Emasculation: the Role of Religion for US Asian Men

Prior research suggests that racialized emasculation-one of the main forms of gendered racism-is associated with adverse health outcomes among US Asian men, such as depressive and somatic symptoms. However, less is known about the relationship between racialized emasculation and resilience, which is a crucial protector against negative health outcomes. Furthermore, there is a lack of research on how US Asian men use religion to cope with racialized emasculation and its health impacts. To fill in these gaps, 469 US Asian men from across the US were surveyed. Regression results indicate that even after controlling for general racism, internalized racism, and a host of other sociodemographic variables, a rise in perceived racialized emasculation was associated with a decline in resilience. When it comes to religion, negative religious coping shared an inverse relationship with resilience. This religious effect may further interact with an individual's religious identity and perceived racialized emasculation to jointly influence the resilience of US Asian men.