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Biracial Asians' experience of racial invalidation and religious coping: A preliminary report

We examined the experiences of racial identity invalidation, religious coping, and mental health in a sample of biracial Asian college students at a religious university (N = 37). We predicted that invalidation would predict poorer mental health outcomes (Hypothesis 1) and that participants would utilize positive religious coping more than negative religious coping (Hypothesis 2). We also explored the mediating role of positive religious coping on the relationships between invalidation and mental health outcomes. Hypotheses 1 and 2 were supported as predicted, however the mediating role of positive religious coping was significant only for the anxiety relationship (B = 0.09). Our findings contribute to gaps in the religious coping and multiracial literature, but further research is necessary to fully understand the role of positive religious coping on mental health.