Relationship Between Perceived Discrimination and Somatic Symptom Disorder Among Young Adults With Immigrant Background in South Korea

Abstract

Insufficient research has compared the impact of subtle and overt discrimination on somatic symptom disorder (SSD) among young adults with immigrant backgrounds in South Korea, a country that is becoming increasingly racially and ethnically diverse. Therefore, this study seeks to examine this. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in January 2022 involving 328 young adults aged 25 to 34 years who had at least one foreign-born parent or were foreign-born immigrants. We used ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with SSD as the dependent variable. The results showed that subtle and overt discrimination were positively associated with SSD among young immigrant adults. Subtle discrimination seems more strongly related to SSD among Korean-born immigrant adults (N = 198; beta = 0.171, P < .05) than foreign-born immigrant young adults (N = 130; beta = 0.031, P > .05). This result partially supported the theory that both forms of discrimination were differently related to increased SSD tendencies by place of birth.