Perceived Racial Misclassification Among Native American and Alaska Native College Students: Preliminary Evidence for a Culturally Relevant Stressor

Singular understandings of racialized experiences are insufficient to advance our understanding of mental health disparities. Perceived racial misclassification (PRM), a perceived discrepancy between one’s socially assigned and self-assigned racial identity, is one such emergent culturally relevant stressor with significant health implications. Evidence suggests that Native American and Alaska Native (NA/AN) individuals experience the highest rates of PRM. Yet, there are no prior studies investigating psychosocial correlates of PRM within NA/AN communities. This exploratory study explored associations between PRM and NA/AN mental health and cultural factors including ethnic-racial identity, connectedness, and historical loss. Comparative analyses were conducted among a national sample of 110 NA/AN college students who were and were not experiencing PRM. Results: Sixty percent reported experiencing PRM. Significant mental health differences emerged between participants who reported PRM and participants who did not, such that the PRM group reported greater anxiety, somatic, and depressive symptoms. No differences were found between groups in well-being, historical loss, cultural connectedness, or ethnic-racial identity. These preliminary findings support the necessity of using multiple dimensions of race to further our understanding of mental health among racialized communities. Further, the results underscore the need for further research into PRM as a widely experienced and critically understudied culturally relevant stressor among NA/AN communities.

Duke Scholars

Author Anna Fetter Psychiatry, Child & Family Mental Health & Community Psychia ...