(PS7-B33) Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) American Identity and Wellbeing

Background: Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Americans have been described as the largest invisible ethnic or racial minority group in the United States (Naber, 2000). Racialized as ‘non-white’ or ‘other’, the community is subject to stereotypes, negative media portrayals, discrimination, and disenfranchisement (Awad et al., 2019). Though many MENA Americans do not identify as ‘White’ (e.g., Ajrouch & Jamal, 2007), incongruous legal classification as ‘White’ renders the community federally unprotected, socially unseen, and historically understudied. It follows that identity and recognition issues are at the forefront of the MENA American experience (Abdel-Salam, 2021) and are a core component of Awad and colleagues’ (2019) conceptual model of cumulative racial-ethnic trauma. This model provides a foundation for understanding mental health disparities (e.g., Amer & Hovey, 2012). Both p</span>erceived ethnic discrimination (e.g., Schmitt et al., 2014) and historical trauma (e.g., Norris et al., 2011; Ahmed et al., 2011) have been associated with higher psychological distress, however, identity and recognition issues – a unique challenge for MENA Americans – are a far less-examined component of the model and may have important implications for psychological wellbeing.

Present Study: We aim to examine mental health correlates of perceived invisibility. We hypothesize that (1) higher perceived invisibility will be related to higher psychological distress, and (2) effects will be weakened by protective factors (e.g., ethnic identity) and strengthened by risk factors (e.g., ethnic discrimination), including individual-level risk factors (e.g., identifying as Muslim) and regional-level risk factors (e.g., higher hate crime statistics).

Methods: A cross-sectional, national sample of 160-200 MENA American adults will complete an online survey. We are measuring perceived invisibility (assessing, for example, the extent to which one’s MENA identity feels unseen socially and legally), using scaled items derived from Abdel-Salam’s (2021) qualitative research. Our outcomes are self-reported depression and anxiety. Moderators include person-level factors (e.g., Brief Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire, Community Version; Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, Revised) and regional-level factors (e.g., number of hate crimes documented annually in state of residence).

Results and

Conclusion: Recruitment is ongoing and will be complete by June 2022. Analyses will include linear regressions; we will test interaction effects using Hayes’s process model. This study will contribute much-needed data towards understanding MENA Americans’ perceptions about identity and recognition issues and the potential implications for psychological wellbeing.