Model Minority Stereotype Stress and Depressive Symptoms Among Asian American Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Students: The Mediating Role of Rumination

The model minority stereotype (MMS) is deeply embedded within the society of the United States, including in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This has resulted in the neglect of STEM Asian American students' psychological needs by researchers and service providers while simultaneously pressuring the students to pursue unattainable goals. The aim of the present study was to explore the mechanism of how stress from the MMS might be related to depressive symptoms. Based on Hatzenbuehler's (2009) psychological mediation framework, MMS stress was hypothesized to be positively related to depressive symptoms through the mediating role of rumination. Data from 188 Asian American STEM students were analyzed using latent growth modeling. Results showed that the relationships among the MMS stress, rumination, and depressive symptoms were better explained by a linear growth framework than a no-growth model. Rumination mediated the positive association between the MMS stress and depressive symptoms in the cross-sectional context. Longitudinally, initially high levels of MMS stress hindered the decrease in the depressive symptoms overtime, and this relationship was mediated by the initial high level of rumination, indicating a significant role of rumination.