Religious Coping & Issues of Race During Global Pandemic

Katie Walker, Anthony Egbo, & Dr. Cherisse Y. Flanagan

Abilene Christian University

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global virus that has left no one unaffected. Billions of people around the world were social distancing and staying in their homes. But, unfortunately, racial prejudice has left some people groups more persecuted.

In the beginning of the mayhem of COVID in the United States the previous President referred to the virus as the “China virus.” There has been an evolution throughout the past year of hate crimes, and racial bias towards people of Asian-descent. These have all been major themes during the pandemic in the U.S.

Minority Issues - Abilene Christian University

The chief aim of this study was to measure the effects of COVID-19 across the Abilene Christian University student population, in regards to the intersection of racial bias and prejudice with religious coping.

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Discrimination

Early data suggests that Asians have experienced increased discrimination specifically due to people thinking they might have the coronavirus (Liu & Finch, 2020).

Fear and anticipation of future stigma and discrimination due to coronavirus may also contribute to greater anxiety and uncertainty both during and following the pandemic.

Hate Crimes

Lucy Li, a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital, was verbally attacked on her way to the hospital in May of 2020.

In February of 2021, Denny Kim, a 27-year old Korean American reported that in Los Angeles’ Koreatown he was verbally assaulted - death threats included - and struck in the face.

Jeremy Lin, “coronavirus” slur

The NBA player, Jeremy Lin, went public with the news on February 25th, 2021 that in the past year he has been referred to as the slur “coronavirus” on the basketball court (Chavez, 2021).

Response to Hate Crimes

New York City was forced to form an Asian Hate Crime Task Force as a result of the astronomically high rates of xenophobia and violence against people of Asian-descent in the city (Li and Chapman, 2021).

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Vaccine Distribution Discrepancy

(Kambhampati, Lee, Mukherjee and Murphy, 2021)

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Racist history of pandemics

During the “The Black Death” from 1347–1351 in Europe, the Jewish people were blamed for the outbreak and convicted of “collectively poisoning wells and food supplies” (Cohn, 2012).

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In June of 2020, Black Americans had been dying around 2.4 times the rate of white Americans. This statistic only furthers the disparities such as Black people being more likely than white people to die from cancer and more likely to suffer from chronic pain, diabetes, and depression (Keshavan, 2020).

Consequences of Stigma

• Drive people to hide the illness to avoid discrimination
• Prevent people from seeking health care immediately
• Discourage them from adopting healthy behaviours
• Depression, anxiety, other mental illness

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Religious Coping

• Religion has always been closely tied to mental health functioning such as overall improved mental health, healthier social functioning, and lower self-destructive behaviors (Papaleontiou-Louca, 2021).
• Religiosity is positively correlated with personality traits seen in the Five-Factor Model: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Khoynezhad, 2012).
• Alternatively, belief in certain “negative” religious beliefs, (e.g. God as being punishing, unreliable, or wrathful), can lead other people to have higher rates of depression and a lower quality of life.

Scapegoating

Scapegoating is a social and psychological process by which one shifts blame on others, who they may find vulnerable, for their problems, failures, misdeeds.

Scapegoating helps in maintaining a positive self-image while creating a feeling of prejudice and negative attitudes towards the group or person that is being scapegoated. By placing blame on other people can avoid facing their weaknesses… thus stems bias against people of Asian descent.

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Scapegoat - Biblical Origins

It was the regular practice in Hebrew law to sacrifice a goat as a sin-offering for the people of Israel.

“When he becomes aware of his sin, he must bring as his offering a male goat with no defects.” Leviticus 4:23

“Include one male goat as a sin offering to make atonement for you.” Numbers 29:5

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Methodology

Minority Bias in Pandemic (MBP) Scale

• 10 author-developed items
• Likert Scale: 1= Strongly Disagree, 6= Strongly Agree
• 4 Items reversed coded testing for “no bias”.

10 60

Domains

• Self-bias
• Is this person actively avoiding or harboring bias toward people of certain racial groups?
• Challenging bias
• Has this person spoken out against another’s bias or avoided doing so?
• Encountering bias
• What does this person believe when it comes to the accuracy of certain races and their likelihood of having the virus?

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Sample Items

Domain 2: Challenging bias

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• “My race has been discriminated against since the COVID-19 outbreak and the views went unchallenged by others.”
• “Since COVID-19’s massive spread I have not had to speak out against discriminatory bias.”

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Domain 1: Self-bias

• “Due to the current pandemic, I have avoided certain people while in public based on their ethnicity due to fears that they could have the virus.”
• “I do not think that Asian-Americans are more likely to have the virus.”

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Sample Items Continued...

Domain 3: Encountering bias

• “I have witnessed COVID-19 related racial/ethnic bias.”
• “I have not encountered a need to speak out against discriminatory bias during the pandemic.”

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Religious Coping in Pandemic (RCP) Scale

• 2 author-developed items
• Likert Scale: 1= Strongly Disagree, 6= Strongly Agree

10 60

Faith Response: Coping Scale

Domain 2: Cognitive

• “My belief in God has helped me with the stress of the pandemic.”

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Domain 1: Relational

• “I feel a sense of peace knowing that God is with me despite the chaos going on.”

Participants

• N=148; 78.4% Female, 21.6% Male
• Undergraduate Students at Abilene Christian University in psychology classes over 18 years old
• Completed via web-based link in Google Forms
• Received Extra-Credit for Participation
• Informed Consent was digitally endorsed

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Demographics - Sex and Age

Demographics - Religion and Ethnicity

Demographics - COVID-19

When this study was deployed in April of 2020, these were the percentages of participants with personal connections to COVID-19.

Results

Results

Cronbach's alpha is .626

There was a significant correlation found between minority bias and religious coping, r(138)=-.176, p=.021, and the majority of participants reported strong levels of religious coping and low levels of minority bias and experiences.

Correlation Coefficients for Racial Bias and Religious Coping

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p < .05

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Faith: Cognitive

RCP2: “My belief in God has helped me with the stress of the pandemic”

Faith: Relational/Peace

RCP1: “I feel a sense of peace knowing that God is with me despite the chaos going on”

Distribution of scores

Measure: racial bias scale

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• Highest possible score: 60. Lowest possible score: 10

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• Positively skewed = less bias

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• Most are below the median score of 30

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Encountering Bias

• About 38% (57) of people encountered a need to speak out

MBP2: “I have not encountered a need to speak out against discriminatory bias during the pandemic”

Witnessing Bias

• About 27% (41) of people agree that they have witnessed bias.

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• Although 27% is a minority, that is still 1 out of every 4 people witnessing bias.

MBP1: “I have witnessed COVID-19 related racial/ethnic bias”

Self-Bias

• 15% of participants believe Asian-Americans are more likely to have the virus.

MBP6: “I do not think that Asian-Americans are more likely to have the virus than any other ethnic group”

Discussion

Implications

Racial discrimination has long been linked with worse mental health including general distress, depression, and anxiety (Vines, Ward, Cordoba, & Black, 2017; Williams & Mohammed, 2009).

This relationship also holds for Asian Americans (Gee, Ro, Shariff-Marco, & Chae, 2009).

Asian communities have to contend with the ramifications of the outbreak and the stigma during their psychological recovery.

Understanding the intersection of current mental health needs, COVID-related distress, and minority stigma is critical to addressing mental health issues.

Evidenced-Based Stigma Reduction

• Challenge stereotypes by presenting them as “unrepresentative or atypical.”
• Show empathy for all people affected - worldwide.
• Presenting Asian American individuals who disconfirm stereotypes by actively combating the spread of the virus, which have shown efficacy for reducing stigma previously (Chen, 2015).
• For example, the First Lady of New York City released a video on Twitter building solidarity with Asian Americans as part of the United States and sharing their roles on the frontlines (McCray, 2020).
• Positive mass media campaigns can be effective at breaking stereotypes and decreasing prejudice (Clement et al., 2013; Knifton & Quinn, 2008).

UNICEF/WHO Guidelines

• Avoid attaching locations or ethnicity to the disease.
• The official name for the disease was deliberately chosen to avoid stigmatization - the “co” stands for Corona, “vi” for the virus, and “d” for disease, 19 is because the disease emerged in 2019 (UNICEF).
• Amplify voices of local people who have recovered from COVID-19 or who have supported a loved one through recovery to emphasize that most people do recover from COVID-19.
• Supporting “hero” campaigns honoring caretakers and healthcare workers who may be stigmatized.

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Limitations

• Small Sample Size
• Small scales
• Sample demographics were narrow
• More females than males
• More underclassmen (freshman/sophomores)
• Minority groups underrepresented (but reflects the demographics of the university where the study was conducted)
• Educated individuals on a faith-based campus

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Future Research

• Two-year follow-up is currently being implemented
• Expand sample participants using social media and other universities
• Expand sample participants to people under 25 regardless of enrollment in higher education or not

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THANK YOU!