Internalized racism and mental health among Asian Americans: A subgroup meta-analysis.

Prior meta-analyses reveal small-to-large associations between internalized racism (IR) and poor mental health among diverse ethnoracial groups. However, understanding this relationship among Asian Americans is critical given their unique U.S. history and distinct manifestations of IR, including endorsement of the model minority myth and colonial mentality. The current meta-analysis synthesized cross-sectional associations between IR and mental health among Asian Americans (k = 156; N = 12,480; 39 studies, 2006-2024). Results revealed statistically significant (p < .05) small and small-to-moderate positive correlations between IR and anxiety symptoms (r = .19), depressive symptoms (r = .26), psychological distress (r = .09), suicidal ideation (r = .23), and assorted poor mental health indicators (r = .17). IR was also weakly but significantly negatively associated with life satisfaction (r = -.06). IR was not significantly (p > .05) correlated with varied positive mental health indicators (r = -.06) or somatic distress (r = .03). Using a pooled mental health outcome, moderator analyses revealed stronger associations when IR was group-directed rather than self-directed, manifested as self-hatred or cultural and ethnoracial group inferiority rather than colonial mentality, and was negative rather than positive valenced. Tests of bias suggested that higher quality studies reported stronger associations with varied positive mental health, whereas smaller studies yielded larger effects for depression. Precision-Effect Test-Precision-Effect Estimate with Standard Errors and rank-correlation tests did not suggest bias across outcomes. These findings highlight that IR undermines psychological well-being among Asian Americans and underscore the need for culturally specific research to clarify causal mechanisms and inform clinical interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).