Impostor feelings as a moderator and mediator of the relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health among racial/ethnic minority college students.

Abstract

This study investigated whether impostor feelings would both moderate and mediate the relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health in a sample of diverse ethnic minority college students (106 African Americans, 102 Asian Americans, 108 Latino/a Americans) at an urban public university. African American students reported higher perceived discrimination than Asian American and Latino/a American students, while no racial/ethnic group differences were reported for impostor feelings. Analyses revealed that among African American students, high levels of impostor feelings moderated the perceived discrimination and depression relationship and mediated the perceived discrimination and anxiety relationship. Among Asian American students, impostor feelings mediated the relationship between perceived discrimination and both depression and anxiety. Among Latino/a American students low levels of impostor feelings moderated the relationship between perceived discrimination and both depression and anxiety, and partially mediated the relationship between perceived discrimination and anxiety. Multigroup path analyses revealed a significantly stronger impact of impostor feelings on depression among African American students and a stronger impact of perceived discrimination on impostor feelings among African American and Latino/a American students. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Identifying the Prevalence of the Impostor Phenomenon Among Computer Science Students

“…These prior findings are summarized in Table 4. Based on the CIPS score, we found that the results from this study reflect a statistically significant greater prevalence of IP among the sample of CS students than among 477 Health Professional Students [14], 124 Education college students in the Midwestern US [12], 322 Educational Psychology students from the Southwestern US who self-identified as minority students [8], and 169 undergraduate students majoring in Management, Economics, Business Informatics, Law, and Program Engineering from Russia [29] (using t-tests).…”

“…The predictive relationships were explored and it was surprisingly found that impostor feelings were a stronger factor in mental health than perceived discrimination and minority status stress for African Americans. Additionally, for Asian Americans, impostor feelings predicted increased levels of depression and anxiety [8].…”

“…There are a number of symptoms associated with IP; please see "Symptoms" column of Table 1 for associated studies. It is commonly accepted that feelings of IP contribute negatively to an individual's life, and several studies have shown that IP corresponds to increased levels in depression and anxiety [5,8,16,23,27].…”

“…In a follow-up article, Cokley et al continued their work by studying 322 educational psychology college students from a university in the Southwestern United States who self-identified as being part of minority groups. They questioned these students to understand their feelings of discrimination, levels of depression/anxiety, and impostor feelings [8].…”

“…Although this work by Ramsey and Brown [24] focused on using libraries as the support network for students, both libraries and other campus entities could fulfill that role today. The conclusions of Cokley et al address several implications for university counseling centers and how they can incorporate this knowledge with the services that they provide [8]. They suggest that within initial assessment meetings, counseling centers should ask students about feelings of perceived fraudulence.…”