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Debates and Developments

A review of the model minority myth: understanding the social, educational and health impacts

Jessica Waltona Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Burwood, AustraliaCorrespondencejessica.walton@deakin.edu.au
ORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-3876-2994View further author information
ORCID Icon &
Mandy Truongb School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University, Clayton, AustraliaORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-9406-3405View further author information
ORCID Icon
Pages 391-419 | Received 07 Sep 2021, Accepted 25 Aug 2022, Published online: 23 Sep 2022

ABSTRACT

As shown by the recent increase in anti-Asian racism and violence worldwide, the label of “model minority” is flawed and fails to capture the breadth and depth of the experiences of Asian people. Our paper is the first to provide a scoping review of empirical research (ninety-seven studies) that examine the social, educational and health and wellbeing impacts of the model minority myth (MMM) for people of Asian descent in white-majority countries. Key findings indicate that the MMM is complex and contradictory and is present across multiple sectors. Therefore, the MMM needs to be understood holistically as a structural issue that has implications for reinforcing racial inequities. Future research should adopt multilevel frameworks and methods to further understand community and structural impacts of the MMM on people of Asian descent internationally and consider how the MMM contributes to a white racial grammar that normalizes racial stratification and racist structures.

This article is part of the following collections:
Martin Bulmer Prize

Introduction

More than 55 years since the model minority myth (MMM) emerged in public and academic discourse, primarily in the United States, it has failed to capture the depth and breadth of the experiences of people of Asian descent in white-majority countries (Hartlep Citation2021; Museus and Kiang Citation2009; Wong and Halgin Citation2006). The model minority myth refers to the systematic construction of people of Asian descent as representing successful assimilation into a white dominant society and as “living examples of advancement [i.e. academic achievement] in spite of the persistent color line and because of their racial (often coded as cultural) differences” (Wu Citation2014, 6). A key criticism of the MMM is that it assumes that people with Asian backgrounds living in white-majority countries no longer experience social disadvantage based on race due to their perceived or actual educational and economic success (Liu-Countryman Citation2017; Museus and Kiang Citation2009). Much of the literature has sought to debunk this assumption by criticizing the MMM as homogenizing the experiences of people of Asian descent (Lee, Duesbery et al. Citation2017; Lee, Xiong et al. Citation2017). Recent studies have also shown the persistence of negative representations such as the “perpetual foreigner” (Lee et al. Citation2014; Shim Citation1998; Zhang Citation2010) or “Yellow Peril” tropes (Li and Nicholson Citation2020; Segal, Kilty, and Kim Citation2002) which become interchangeable with “model minority” and are symptomatic of a broader problem of representing “Asia” and “Asians” as monolithic (Rizvi Citation2015).

There has been significant work that has examined the nuances of the MMM, for example in terms of academic achievement (Galindo and Pong Citation2014; Kao Citation1995; Lee and Zhou Citation2015), leadership and workplace discrimination (e.g. Adamos Citation2019; Chin Citation2020; Zhou and Lee Citation2017; Yu Citation2020), identity (e.g. Asher Citation2008; Yoon et al. Citation2017; Zhou and Bankston Citation2020), psychological internalization of the MMM (e.g. Atkin et al. Citation2018; Choi and Lim Citation2015; Kim and Lee Citation2014) and racial discrimination (Dhingra Citation2012; Hartlep and Ellis Citation2015; Kiang, Witkow, and Thompson Citation2016; McGee, Thakore, and LaBlance Citation2017; Museus and Park Citation2015; Poon and Hune Citation2014). It is not within the scope of this paper to provide a comprehensive conceptual overview of the MMM. Instead, the main focus of our paper is on examining the multiple and interrelating impacts of the MMM on people of Asian descent across different domains. Rather than dwelling on debunking the MMM or debating whether or not it is a problem, much like circular debates about racism’s existence (Bonilla-Silva Citation2003; Lentin Citation2016), this paper seeks to address a significant gap in our understanding of the impacts of the MMM at a societal level. To do this, we conducted a scoping review to explicitly examine the impacts of the MMM internationally across disciplines in relation to social, educational and health domains. This departs from previous reviews that were discipline or context specific (i.e. Leong, Chao, and Hardin Citation2000; Ng, Lee, and Pak Citation2007; Poon et al. Citation2016; Tran and Birman Citation2010).

Historical context and global significance of the model minority concept

In popular discourse relating to the MMM, the focus is primarily on representations of people from Asian backgrounds in white-majority countries who have succeeded through educational attainment or financial means (O’Reilly Citation2014; Kristoff Citation2015). However, the historical origins of the MMM and the context in which it first appeared are often overlooked (Poon et al. Citation2016). A previous review of the MMM in higher education argues that studies in this field that tried to counter the myth neglected to adequately address the ways in which it “assisted in the advancement of a color-blind racist ideology and agenda” (Poon et al. Citation2016, 2). Poon and colleagues identified limitations of previous MMM research that include: an ahistorical approach, uncritical treatment of the purpose of the MMM, upholding deficit thinking, focusing too much on the MMM at the expense of a broader and more complex understanding of experiences and perspectives, and unintentionally reinforcing existing hegemonic narratives/ideologies. In this section, we provide a brief overview of the historical context of the MMM and provide some examples of its global significance outside of the United States context, where the vast majority of studies are located.

The origin of the model minority concept is commonly attributed to the New York Times article written by American sociologist William Petersen in 1966 (Petersen Citation1966). However, Petersen does not actually use the term “model minority”. The reference to a racial minority “model” only appears in a subsequent article published in the U.S. News and World Report (Author Unknown Citation1966). In Petersen’s analysis, within the context of the end of Second World War and in the midst of the Civil Rights era in the United States, he describes Japanese Americans as an example of a group of people who have overcome socio-economic barriers created by exclusionary racist policies (e.g. the Immigration Act of 1924, exclusion from U.S. citizenship, Japanese internment camps) primarily through a combination of educational attainment and local Japanese community support networks. Focusing on Japanese men’s employment in 1960, he admitted that despite higher levels of white-collar employment, Japanese men were not employed in more senior positions (i.e. management and leadership) and did not earn as much as their white male counterparts. Petersen’s work is often criticized for positioning Japanese Americans’ ability to overcome racist structural barriers in opposition to African Americans. Although his article certainly sparked subsequent attention to Asians as “successful” model minorities, at the time, his analysis drew attention to socio-cultural factors that seemed to support relative “success”, namely the buffering effects of connections to cultural heritage and ethnic identity compared to the intergenerational cultural trauma and loss of cultural heritage that African Americans experienced beginning with the Trans-Atlantic slave trade (Halloran Citation2019), which put them on a different footing to the cohort of Japanese American men discussed by Petersen. Although there was more nuance in Petersen’s article, which often gets lost, the subsequent article published by the US News and World Report shifted heavily toward claiming Asian Americans (with a focus on Chinese Americans) have overcome the racial discrimination faced by other minority groups, particularly African Americans (Author Unknown Citation1966). The article attributes this “success” to so-called traditional values of hard work, thrift and morality (7) and places these qualities in opposition to perceptions of “failure” attributed to African Americans and other racially minoritized groups (Whaley and Noel Citation2013). This news story, along with Petersen’s article, was then used particularly in popular media to extrapolate this perceived success to people from all Asian ethnic groups regardless of class, gender, immigration status and so on (i.e. Ramirez Citation1986; Thai Citation1987).

The model minority stereotype served the interests of the United States’ nation-building efforts in the aftermath of WWII, which “fostered the advent of racial liberalism: the growing belief in political and intellectual circles that the country’s racial diversity could be most ably managed through the assimilation and integration of nonwhites” (Wu Citation2014, 4). In this context, the MMM was mobilized to favour assimilation in opposition to African Americans and the civil rights movements (Wu Citation2014). This opposition is also reflected in the practice of opposing Asian American “success” to African American “failure”. These oppositions served the broader project of white supremacy by driving a wedge between racial minorities and drawing on individualistic neoliberal rationalizations of economic success by failing to account for the systemic nature of racism that impacts both African Americans and Asian Americans (Chow Citation2017). As Du Bois argued in relation to African American civil rights, it is dangerous to obscure the structural and historical context that has systematically inhibited the upward mobility of African Americans: “ … first, slavery and race-prejudice are potent if not sufficient causes of the Negro’s position … ” (Citation2019, 37). He pointed toward the structural barriers to accessing higher education and that it is disingenuous to insinuate that upward mobility rests primarily on the individual efforts of African Americans. The MMM works to reinforce these meritocratic ideals that overcoming racial barriers mainly rests on individual shoulders, while minimizing the differential structural impediments that systematically work against some while advantaging others despite individual effort. This may produce what Du Bois (Citation2019) referred to as “double consciousness” – an internal and external struggle where a person of colour living within a white-dominated world can feel like they are living double lives and can be experienced as a “peculiar wrenching of the soul, a peculiar sense of doubt and bewilderment” (108). In reference to the MMM, this internal conflict may be experienced as internalized racism where the person experiencing racism internalizes racist beliefs about themselves and their and others’ social positioning. This can be characterized as both “internalised dominance (i.e. privilege) and internalised oppression” which refer to beliefs about the superiority of one’s own racial group/inferiority of other racial groups and the inferiority of one’s own racial group/superiority of other racial groups, respectively (Paradies Citation2006, 151–152). Importantly, this experience of double consciousness and of internalized racism are not simply located within the individual but are symptomatic of deep structural problems rooted in upholding beliefs of white supremacy and “general submission or subordination, subconsciously or otherwise, to the Will of the dominant (White) group” (Seet Citation2021, 227). The power and insidiousness of the MMM is that it presents as a positive characterization of Asian minority groups that may be internalized “positively” as being better than other minority groups (internalized dominance) or experienced “negatively” as being less than the white majority group resulting in increased pressure to represent the hard-working success story of the MMM (internalized oppression). For instance, Zhou and Lee (Citation2017) explain the impediments Asian Americans experience when seeking leadership positions in a workplace context as a combination of “stereotype promise” where the MMM can have a positive effect on academic achievement, but the same model minority stereotype can have a negative effect when it comes to occupational achievement. As we demonstrate later on in the findings of our review, the negative and positive outcomes associated with the MMM stem from the structural embeddedness of the MMM and its role in maintaining white dominance in white-majority countries.

Although the MMM is particularly dominant in the research and popular discourse of the United States, it is also present, albeit limited, in other white-majority countries, such as New Zealand (Hannis Citation2015), Australia (Fukui Citation2018; Ho Citation2017), Canada (Padgett et al. Citation2020; Pon Citation2000), and the Netherlands (Hoogervorst and Tarisa Citation2021). Even if not discussed explicitly as a “model minority”, a similar history of anti-immigration and racist policies toward Asian immigrants allows for similar portrayals of people of Asian descent. This commonality across national borders is reflective of the globalization of whiteness, which is defined by “global processes of (neo)colonization whereby apparently separate white nations share common histories of domination over non-white peoples” (Leonardo Citation2002, 33). For example, Hannis (Citation2015) conducted a content analysis of a major New Zealand newspaper covering the topic of Chinese people in New Zealand in the period of the Immigration Restriction Act in the early 1900s and a hundred years later after another significant influx of Chinese immigration. He found that although there were some allusions to the MMM concept, the majority of references toward Chinese people, even one hundred years later, continued to focus on negative portrayals that drew on “Yellow Peril” stereotypes, which saw Chinese people as a social and economic threat (Mudambi Citation2019). In Australia, the “Yellow Peril” depiction of people of Asian descent living in Australia also has a long history dating back to the violent anti-Chinese riots of the Gold Rush era (Schamberger Citation2017) and the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 (better known as the “White Australia Policy”), which limited non-white immigration to Australia, particularly from Asia, as part of Australia’s nation-building efforts to maintain a “white nation fantasy” (Hage Citation2000). With the passage of the Racial Discrimination Act in 1975, Australia moved toward an approach that celebrated its multicultural diversity and sought to emphasize the benefits of migration to Australia (Soutphommasane Citation2015). However, this was not as simple as flicking a switch, and although a welcome change in terms of a more inclusive immigration policy and stance against racism, the stereotypes of Asian people in Australia – both as model minority and as threat (e.g. high achievers in education vs yellow peril discourse) (Fozdar Citation2016; Ho Citation2019; Kawai Citation2005) – an overall lack of representation in media, politics and leadership positions (Oishi Citation2017; Pietsch Citation2017; Song and Maree Citation2021; Taylor, Landreth, and Bang Citation2005), and more blatant forms of anti-Asian and anti-Chinese racism (e.g. related to COVID-19) point to the underlying systems of oppression and white racial domination that continue to marginalize non-white and Indigenous peoples (Bonilla-Silva Citation1997; Moreton-Robinson Citation2015). With the multicultural turn in Australia, racism based on biological traits became conflated with cultural traits (Lentin Citation2016), morphing into a form of “cultural racism”. Cultural racism serves a similar purpose in that it uses the idea of bounded cultural traits (akin to bounded biological traits) to “[legitimate] the exclusion of ‘others’ on the basis that they are culturally different, and that their presence in core countries will inevitably lead to conflict” (Wren Citation2001, 144). In this context, people of Asian descent may be positioned as “model minorities” but this representation is just as quickly taken away when they are again presented as a “Yellow Peril” and seen as both biological threat and cultural threat, such as in the context of the COVID-19 global pandemic (Li and Nicholson Citation2020).

Objective of this scoping review

The objective of this scoping review is to scope the body of empirical studies that explicitly examine the MMM and its social, educational and health and wellbeing impacts on people of Asian descent in white-majority countries and identify existing knowledge gaps. We have taken this approach to understand the ways in which the impacts of the MMM manifest at individual, institutional and structural levels, particularly given the underlying racism that shapes the social, educational and health and wellbeing experiences of people of Asian descent. Based on our findings that revealed negative and positive impacts of the MMM, we discuss the implications of these findings by drawing on Bonilla-Silva’s (Citation2012) concept of “racial grammar” in order to offer some insight into the complexities of the MMM’s impacts. Bonilla-Silva describes racial grammar as providing a structure for white domination that serves to “normalize the standards of white supremacy as the standards for all sorts of everyday transactions rendering domination almost invisible” (Citation2012, 174). Although not the primary focus of our paper, we found this concept useful for providing a deeper understanding of the negative and positive impacts associated with the MMM.

The structure of the rest of this paper follows with: (1) the methodology used to conduct our scoping review of the impacts of the MMM; (2) an overview of the characteristics of the included studies and study participants; (3) findings of the review related to the social, educational and health and wellbeing impacts of the MMM; (4) a discussion of the key themes that emerged from the findings and (5) study limitations and concluding thoughts for further research in this area.

Methodology

A scoping review method was adopted to map and summarize the key themes reported in the empirical literature (Arksey and O'Malley Citation2005; Peters et al. Citation2015). The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines (Moher et al. Citation2009) and Population, Intervention, Comparison and Outcomes (Schardt et al. Citation2007) were used to construct the research question, search terms and search strategy and methods used to search and review the empirical literature.

Search strategy

Studies were identified from a search of the following seven electronic databases: Ovid Medline, Ovid PsycINFO, CINAHL via EbscoHOST, Business Source Complete via Ebscohost, Education Source via EbscoHOST, Proquest Dissertation and Theses, Proquest Social Science Premium Collection and Scopus. A university research librarian was consulted on the search strategy. The search was limited to studies published in English from earliest time available to 6 August 2020. Reference lists of included studies were also hand-searched for relevant studies. A list of terms was formulated from the concepts: “model minority” and “Asian”. Search strings using subject headings and keywords were developed for each database. See online Appendix for search terms.

Data management

Review management online program Covidence (Veritas Health Innovation Citation2020) was used to manage screening of database search results. Titles and abstracts were independently screened by two reviewers and discordance was resolved by a third reviewer using pre-determined eligibility criteria. Relevant full texts were then independently screened by two reviewers with conflicts resolved by a third reviewer.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Published quantitative, qualitative and mixed studies that are peer-reviewed journal articles, books, book chapters and dissertations or theses were included. Studies that focused on the experiences of people of Asian descent located in majority white countries were included (e.g. United States, Australia, Britain, Canada). There were no limits or restrictions in relation to other demographic factors. Studies that were not empirical (i.e. collected primary data) and did not explicitly examine the MMM in relation to social, health and educational outcomes were excluded. Only studies published in English were included.

The impacts of interest were those related to: social wellbeing (e.g. social inclusion, identity), educational (e.g. educational attainment, college admissions) and health and wellbeing (e.g. self-reported health, mental health, physical health), and any other (e.g. employment opportunities). Papers were excluded where studies focused on investigating whether the MMM concept existed or not, the study aim did not explicitly mention the MMM, or were experimental designs that utilized hypothetical scenarios to test hypotheses. Publications were excluded if they were opinion pieces/editorials, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and conference abstracts or proceedings.

Data analysis

Data extracted from relevant studies included: first author, year of publication, study design, definition of model minority concept, demographics of study population (e.g. age, gender, race/ethnic/cultural background, level of education), outcomes (health, social, educational, other), study findings and study recommendations. Extracted data were recorded in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Due to the heterogeneity of study methodology, design and outcomes, a meta-analysis of quantitative studies and/or meta-synthesis of qualitative studies was not able to be conducted. A narrative synthesis (Aromataris and Munn Citation2020) was conducted where both qualitative and quantitative data were tabulated together and categorized according to the three impacts of interest: social, education and health and wellbeing. Studies reporting on the same impact were compared, with similar and divergent findings reported.

Findings

Included studies

The combined database searches identified 1691 unique references, which were screened using the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A further six references were added from hand searching the reference lists of included studies. A total of ninty-seven references met the inclusion criteria for the scoping review (see ).

Figure 1. Flow chart of study selection.

Figure 1. Flow chart of study selection.

The studies were published between 1995 and 2020, with over half (n = 57) published between 2015 and 2020 (). With the exception of 2013, we found a growing trend in research on this topic (). The majority of studies examined populations located in the United States (U.S.) (n = 92), followed by Canada (n = 4) and the United Kingdom (n = 1). Surprisingly, there were no studies from other countries that have long histories of Asian immigration, such as Australia and New Zealand, and comparable proportions of people with Asian heritage.Footnote1 This indicates that existing empirical evidence on this topic is predominantly based on the experiences of Asian Americans, despite the MMM being a broader problem in other countries (Hannis Citation2015; Ho Citation2017; Padgett et al. Citation2020). There may be some Asian American experiences that are translatable to Asian people and communities in other white-majority communities, however there will likely be some experiences and issues that are unique to each country arising from differences in migration patterns, immigration policies and other important socio-cultural factors.

Figure 2. Number of publications on the model minority and its impacts from 1995 to 2020a. aUp to 6 August 2020.

Figure 2. Number of publications on the model minority and its impacts from 1995 to 2020a. aUp to 6 August 2020.

Table 1. Summary of included studies (n = 97).

The majority of studies included both male and female participants and about half of studies examined populations in the age range 18–30 years, which aligns with the proportion of studies conducted in colleges and universities. About a third of studies included populations under the age of 18 years, which is an important period of social development (Carlo and Padilla-Walker Citation2020; Smetana Citation2011). The majority of studies included participants from two or more Asian ethnic or cultural groups and a third focused on a single ethnic or cultural group with the most common ethnicities being Korean, Chinese and Indian.

Other demographic characteristics related to family background and immigration were commonly reported by studies. This included immigration status (e.g. country of birth, years of residency in the country), generational status, parental income and parental level of education. Forty-two studies reported the generational status of participants. This refers to a person or their parents’ place of birth; a first-generation migrant is the first foreign-born person in that family to gain citizenship or permanent residence in the country of residence (US Census Citation2019a). In addition, over a third of studies reported factors related to migration status (i.e. country of birth, nativity, born overseas, length of residency).

Social, educational and health and wellbeing impacts

Previous research has primarily understood the impacts of the MMM separately by looking only at educational impacts or at health impacts, with a smaller number of studies included in our review examining the MMM across different areas (). A key contribution of our review is that it takes into consideration multiple interrelated factors across different settings. To understand the MMM holistically, we categorized the impacts of the MMM into three broad categories: social, educational and health and wellbeing. In this review, social impacts are broadly defined as those related to people’s experiences, behaviours and interactions relating to identity, belonging and family and peer dynamics. Impacts related to education include experiences associated with academic aspirations and achievements (e.g. GPA scores), in addition to challenges such as pressure and expectations to succeed. Health and wellbeing impacts include both psychological and physical outcomes and self-esteem.

Social impacts

The majority of social impacts examined were related to processes of identification: forms of identity, predominantly ethnic identity, ethnic socialization (i.e. peer and family) and forms of belonging and inclusion. The majority of qualitative studies that examined the social impacts of the MMM explored issues related to identity and most of these found that the MMM had a negative impact on social outcomes.

Studies explored how participants developed and navigated their ethnic or cultural identity at school and in the community. There is evidence that Asian Americans struggled with their ethnic/cultural identity partly due to other people’s perceptions of what it meant to be “Asian”. This included a perception or expectation of having to “live up” to the stereotype of being good at maths and science and doing well academically. In a study of Korean immigrant high school students in the U.S., students that had adopted the role of model minority by being “hard working, uncomplaining, quiet Asian students” (Park Citation2011, 628) excluded their peers who had also recently migrated to the U.S. but who did not conform to the MMM stereotype. The students understood that there was a clear racial hierarchy at their school, with being white at the top, and sought to align themselves with white Americans in order to become “honorary whites” (Bonilla-Silva Citation2004; Park Citation2011). Another study, of thirteen East Asian adolescents (Yoon et al. Citation2017), found that the MMM was prevalent and deeply ingrained in the lives of the participants and their families and this was influenced by ethnic socialization messages from family and ethnic communities related to Asian cultural valuesFootnote2 and practices and messages from mainstream society focused on Asian stereotypes.

Studies of Asian college students also found negative impacts on identity and inclusion. Assumptions about being “nerdy” and “socially inept” can contribute to racial isolation and marginalization (Clemons Citation2019; Museus and Park Citation2015), while being viewed as part of an “inferior” Asian ethnic group can result in feelings of invisibility and being perceived as being less capable (Vang Citation2016). Furthermore, racial and ethnic isolation resulting from MMM assumptions functions to “make invisible, omit, exclude, and isolate them [Asian college students] from resources, support, visibility and belonging” (Yi Borromeo Citation2018, 158). Stereotypes of being high-achieving and obedient caused frustration for participants when they were perceived as challenging these stereotypes. Additionally, some participants (from various ethnicities) described being mis-identified as being from another ethnicity or sub-group (e.g. East Asian), or having their struggles overlooked and denied because of the MMM assumption that Asians do not experience the challenges and issues faced by other racialized minorities.

Several studies reported negative experiences related to belonging and inclusion among Asian Americans, such as marginalization and isolation (Adamos Citation2019) and impacts from negative stereotyping which were mostly related to being perpetual foreigners (Chua and Fujino Citation1999) and not “true” Americans. This added pressures to Asian Americans in leadership roles due to a fear of not being considered legitimate by their white peers and caused perceived barriers to career advancement opportunities (Adamos Citation2019).

Quantitative and mixed-methods studies examined social outcomes related to acculturation, identity, perceived discrimination and adherence to “Asian cultural values”. Several studies used the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) (Phinney Citation1992); most of these studies examined the link between the MMM, ethnic identity and health and wellbeing outcomes. Although there were mixed findings, most found that a greater sense of ethnic identity was linked to negative impacts on health and wellbeing (e.g. Chang Citation2017; Tummala-Narra et al. Citation2018). A study of Asian American college students found that greater ethnic identity was associated with increased acculturative stress and academic stress, suggesting that stronger ethnic identity is related to increased pressure to pursue academic excellence; however, internalization of the MMM did not significantly relate to ethnic identity, acculturative stress, depression or academic stress (Chang Citation2017). This contradicts other research that shows ethnic identity acts as a protective factor for negative psychological outcomes (Priest et al. Citation2014). Reasoning for this may be that certain dimensions of ethnic identity and internalization of the MMM have been found to be associated with negative mental health outcomes and less favourable attitudes towards help-seeking (Tummala-Narra et al. Citation2018). Comparatively, a longitudinal study of ethnic identity and adolescents’ experiences with the MMM found that experiences of MMM stereotyping were linked to ethnic identity development; more experiences of stereotyping were associated with higher ethnic belonging (Thompson, Kiang, and Witkow Citation2016). As with other findings from this review, these mixed findings point to the complexity of the MMM and the importance of analysing the impacts of the MMM and interpreting the findings through a holistic approach that takes into consideration how experiences of the MMM and its impacts are interrelated and cannot be understood in isolation.

Educational impacts

Qualitative studies examined educational impacts related to perceptions pertaining to educational aspirations, achievement, and support, as well as challenges, pressures and expectations. Quantitative and mixed-methods studies examined educational outcomes including academic self-efficacy and academic achievement, most commonly measured by Grade Point Average (GPA) scores.

The majority of qualitative studies reported negative impacts of the MMM on educational experiences and opportunities in relation to two main aspects: greater expectation and pressure to succeed (e.g. Assalone and Fann Citation2017; Nguyen Citation2019) and lack of access to support for those struggling academically (e.g. Castro Citation2018; Choi Citation2010). Firstly, being perceived as part of a model minority group resulted in high expectations for Asian students to do well at school and college. These expectations were shared by parents, peers, teachers and students themselves (e.g. Hamm Citation2015; Verma Citation2004; Wong Citation2015). This pressure to succeed increased participants’ anxiety and stress as they felt they had to live up to the expectations of the MMM (e.g. Nguyen Citation2018; Yu Citation2009). This anxiety and stress can result in a fear of failure, which can lead to lowered self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy (Verma Citation2004). Secondly, this expectation and perception of being high achievers can impact access to educational supports and opportunities as it may result in lack of identification of the need for support from students themselves, who internalize the expectations and thus do not ask for help (Lee, Xiong et al. Citation2017), and from teachers, who do not perceive students’ need for support because they are Asian and assumed to be fine (Choi Citation2010, Citation2018; Wong Citation2015).

Some studies found that the MMM had both positive and negative impacts on participants, with some participants feeling conflicted about MMM stereotypes. While there was an appreciation that teachers have high academic expectations which encouraged students and gave them confidence and motivation, however, this also generated unease, anxiety and intense pressure to meet these expectations, particularly if their achievements were perceived as being linked to the reputation of the family (i.e. fear of not living up to family expectations) (Assalone and Fann Citation2017; Wong Citation2015). Additionally, a study that examined how the MMM influenced the relationship between academic achievement, anxiety, self-esteem and ethnic identity of East Asian students found that these impacts may depend on the ethnic make-up of their school community and whether they are a minority or majority in the school (Kim Citation2007).

The extent to which the MMM impacts Asian American individuals is also linked to peer and family relationships, mostly the role of parental expectations for academic achievements on health and wellbeing. Perceptions of parental expectations for academic achievement are associated with academic stress and depression but internalization of the MMM was not a predictor (Aoki Citation2019). Parents and family members who reinforce the MMM by transmitting messages of expectations of high academic achievement to their children, which are then internalized can lead to stress and anxiety for Asian students (Rodriguez-Operana Citation2017; Yim Citation2009).

Health and wellbeing impacts

Experiences relating to the MMM in social and education settings that result in negative impacts on identity development and social inclusion have consequences for the health and wellbeing of individuals. The majority of health impacts were psychological, with very few examining physical health. Other health-related impacts measured were: physical health functioning (study 2 in Haritatos Citation2005), alcohol and substance use (Jackson Citation2015) and overall health (Nicholson and Mei Citation2020).

The majority of quantitative studies examined psychological health impacts, mainly depression and psychological distress. Depression was commonly measured using scales such as the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale (Radloff Citation1977) and psychological distress was often measured using the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (Derogatis et al. Citation1974). Again, there were mixed and conflicting findings; internalization of MMM stereotypes can be associated with an increase in depression and anxiety (e.g. Atkin et al. Citation2018; Chen Citation1995; Kim Citation2009) but also be related to less depressive symptoms (Chang Citation2017; Godon-Decoteau Citation2018), while others found no association (Aoki Citation2019; Chu Citation2001). The MMM may be a potential buffer against depression if participants believe that as a “model minority” they are naturally intelligent and successful, especially in comparison with other racial/ethnic minorities, which may provide them with a greater sense of worth (Chang Citation2017).

Perceived stress was measured in four studies using the following scales: Perceived Stress, Minority Status Stress Scale, RMAS Distress Scale and Asian American Racial Microaggressions Stress Scale (Haritatos Citation2005; Jackson Citation2015; Menon Citation2016; Parks Citation2020) and self-esteem was measured in studies using either the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (Rosenberg [Citation1979] Citation2006, used in Chu Citation2001; Kiang, Witkow, and Thompson Citation2016; Padgett et al. Citation2020; Thompson and Kiang Citation2010) or the Collective Self-Esteem scale (Luhtanen and Crocker Citation1992; used in Haritatos Citation2005; Jackson Citation2015; Kim Citation2007). Perceived stress was found to be linked to experiences of racism related to the MMM (Menon Citation2016; Parks Citation2020). Results of the MMM’s impact on self-esteem were mixed across these studies; endorsement of the MMM was related to both to higher self-esteem (Haritatos Citation2005) and lower self-esteem and wellbeing (Padgett et al. Citation2020).

Among the qualitative studies examining psychological health, negative impacts related to mental health, stress and psychological wellbeing were related to the MMM (Lee et al. Citation2009; Niwa et al. Citation2011). Mixed-methods studies examining psychological health used quantitative tools to measure depression, perceived stress, adjustment and anxiety. A study by Daga and Raval (Citation2018) explored ethnic-racial socialization, model minority experience and psychological functioning among South Asian adults. The quantitative findings of this study related to the MMM included a positive correlation between model minority pressure and adjustment problems (e.g. anxiety, depression, academic problems), meaning there were negative consequences of pressure for their overall adjustment. Findings from qualitative interviews in this study indicated that participants experienced racism due to being perceived as foreigners and relied on family and community support to prepare themselves to deal with such experiences (Daga and Raval Citation2018).

Discussion

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first review of this kind that has synthesized the existing literature on the social, educational and health and wellbeing impacts of the MMM. By taking a holistic approach to examining the impacts of the MMM, we provide an understanding of the multidimensional nature of the MMM and its myriad impacts on the lives of people of Asian descent living in majority-white countries. This review identifies a growing body of literature across different disciplines, including education, psychology and the social sciences. Findings of the existing empirical research on the impacts of the MMM are highly variable, complex and occasionally contradictory. However, this complexity demonstrates the importance of understanding the impacts of the MMM as interrelated and multilayered. Furthermore, in order to avoid reinforcing and giving weight to MMM stereotypes, any analysis of the MMM needs to examine how it contributes to racial stratification and racist structures in white-dominant societies. This is necessary to understanding the persistence of the MMM over time and the insidious way its perceived “positive” representations of Asian people (i.e. hard-working, high-achieving, and intelligent) at the same time, negatively impact both Asian people and other minoritized racial groups.

As we stated in our introduction, we are not seeking to disprove the MMM or to simply describe the diversity and complexity that the MMM covers; rather, through our cross-disciplinary review of the empirical literature we seek to deepen our understanding of the MMM by examining the interrelated impacts of the MMM and to make sense of the complexities in relation to its role in maintaining the project of white supremacy and perpetuating racial inequities (Bonilla-Silva Citation1997; Gee and Ford Citation2011).

Firstly, the main finding from our review is that the impacts of the MMM are complex and are reflected at the levels of the individual, peers, family and community as well as within institutions such as schools, colleges/universities, religious organizations and workplaces. These impacts are also interrelated across social, educational and health and wellbeing areas. For example, the social pressures placed on individuals, such as high academic expectations from parents (Yim Citation2009) and teachers (Wong Citation2015), can contribute to an accumulation of mental health distress in the form of increased anxiety (Kim Citation2007) and low self-esteem (Verma Citation2004) for some students, particularly those that struggle academically, or can negatively affect their sense of academic self-efficacy (Cho Citation2011) out of fear of not living up to expectations. At an institutional level, students who may need academic support are then overlooked or the students themselves may feel stigma if they seek help, which means that available support services are not being accessed and educational inequities are not addressed (Suzuki Citation2002). At a peer level, although it may be construed as positive when Asian students are turned to for help with subjects such as maths or science (Assalone and Fann Citation2017), the pressure of not being able to fulfil those expectations can have an adverse effect. Related to this, the limited representation of Asian people based on the MMM as naturally high-achieving and intelligent can contribute to peer exclusion from social activities due to a stereotyped view of them as anti-social nerds (Choi Citation2010; Cui Citation2019). This view serves to delegitimize and devalue the academic and cultural contributions of Asian students, resulting in exclusion and marginalization (Clemons Citation2019; Cui Citation2019; Museus and Park Citation2015).

The MMM does not predict and cannot explain all impacts commonly associated with it, such as stress, anxiety, depression or low academic self-efficacy (i.e. Aoki Citation2019), but the reinforcement of the MMM in different aspects of Asian people’s lived experiences does have an overall effect of contributing to a white-dominated, racially stratified society that positions all others considered to be “not white” as inferior. This brings us to a second finding from our review, which is that the complex impacts of the MMM are not simply either positive or negative but must be understood in terms of the broader impact on society as a whole.

The complexity and sometimes contradictory impacts of the MMM illustrate its fluidity to adapt to different contexts across time just as racism and whiteness also adapt to different social and historical circumstances (Leonardo Citation2002; Wren Citation2001). As Leonardo (Citation2002) argues, “In order to maintain its racial hegemony, whiteness has always had to maintain some sense of flexibility” (41). This flexibility is achieved by the subtle adaptation to new contexts over time, such as the shift from predominantly “Yellow Peril” tropes to the MMM. Whiteness, as Leonardo (Citation2002) argues, is “a racial discourse … [that is] characterized by the unwillingness to name the contours of racism, the avoidance of identifying with a racial experience or group, the minimization of racist legacy, and other similar evasions” (31–32). Racial grammar could be said to give structure to whiteness as racial discourse and is integral to the persistence of white supremacy. Critically, racial grammar normalizes white racial domination because, as Bonilla-Silva (Citation2012) argues, racial grammar, “like the oil in a car, allows the engine to operate somewhat smoothly in any racial order” (188). He explains that:

The racial grammar helps accomplish this task [of racial domination] by shaping insignificant ways how we see or don’t see race in social phenomena, how we frame matters as racial or not race-related, and even how we feel about race matters. (174)

The racial grammar of whiteness adapts to its circumstances and the MMM as part of that racial grammar reflects a form of adaptation, moving away from the more overtly negative portrayals of Asian people to a seemingly benign portrayal.

In comparison to Yellow Peril tropes, the MMM can be interpreted as having positive connotations such as Asian people as hard workers and high achievers. However, research that examines stereotypes that might be considered “complimentary” (Czopp Citation2008) are nevertheless “still considered a form of racism by minority groups and are also strongly related to more traditional negative stereotypes” (Walton, Priest, and Paradies Citation2013, 85). As Cui (Citation2019) points out, the “Yellow Peril” stereotype did not replace the MMM stereotype and instead “these two seemingly contradictory stereotypes harmoniously coexist like two sides of a coin, with one temporarily taking precedence over the other [at] various times” (76). Both portrayals are situated within an “opportunity/threat dichotomy” (Ang Citation2016, 265) with very similar consequences, in that both representations maintain a fantasy of a white-dominated racial order (Hage Citation2000). The MMM masks this insidious effect and can mean that Asian people who internalize the MMM may buy into the idea that Asian people are “honorary whites” (Bonilla-Silva Citation2004; Park Citation2011) thus being complicit in maintaining the status quo of white supremacy and see this as positive and/or feel the burden of the stereotypes associated with the MMM and view it as having a negative impact. The social impacts of the MMM from this review provide insight into its role in maintaining and exacerbating a white-dominated racially stratified society. Choi and Lim (Citation2015) found that for Korean immigrants who internalized the MMM, self-policing was used as a tool of racial discrimination amongst their Asian peers to actively work to maintain a perceived more acceptable position as “honorary whites”. Korean immigrants who accepted and utilized the MMM went as far as separating themselves from other ethnic groups and even acting as perpetrators of racial assaults to other international students (Choi and Lim Citation2015). This demonstrates a reproduction of the negative prejudices and racist practices they themselves had experienced from mainstream peers and contributes to the co-construction and reinforcement of the racial hierarchy and structure in their school community (Choi and Lim Citation2015).

Overall, it is critical that research related to the MMM goes beyond whether it has a negative or positive impact on individuals. As the findings from this review show, the impacts of the MMM are complex and varied but they all have one thing in common: the overall societal impact of the MMM is that it presents a false assumption that people of Asian descent no longer experience racial disadvantage or discrimination, thus reinforcing existing racist structures and contributing to their endurance and adaptability across time. Both negative and positive connotations maintain a belief in white supremacy and a racially stratified social order where the oppressed become complicit in “self-perpetuating, enacting and maintaining similar oppressive conditions” (Seet Citation2021, 216). This insidious undercurrent that characterizes the MMM was a deliberate act that was systematically enacted to create further divisions within a racialized social order while maintaining white dominance (Wu Citation2014). Focusing on either negative or positive impacts of the MMM as the sole focus has the effect of inadvertently upholding this status quo. As this review has shown, the MMM is complex and structurally embedded and thus requires a move beyond this binary.

Strengths and limitations of this scoping review

A key strength of our review is that it is broad in scope and breadth and takes a holistic approach to understanding the MMM and its impacts. Quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies were included, providing a comprehensive and in-depth overview of the literature. One limitation of the review is that we only included studies published in English, however, the purpose of the study was to review the literature related to Asian minorities in white-majority countries. Quality assessment of studies was not conducted although all included studies have been academically peer-reviewed. Finally, this review did not examine all possible impacts of the MMM due to word limitations and being beyond the scope of this review. While there may be studies that were not captured by our search strategy and methods; the objective of this review was to provide an analysis of the overall existing scholarship in the field to identify areas of focus for future research.

Conclusion

From this review of the existing literature, we identify several key recommendations for future research. Firstly, more research about the impacts of the MMM should adopt holistic, multi-level frameworks and methods that include community and structural impacts of the MMM on Asian minority groups and seek to understand the historical context of those impacts over time. As the majority of research was cross-sectional, research in this area would benefit from longitudinal studies examining the impact of the MMM from childhood through to early adulthood. While beyond the scope of this review, future studies should also examine other impacts of the MMM, for example, economic and employment outcomes. More research is also needed in countries (other than the United States) that have sizable proportions of Asian minorities in the population within white-dominated societies, such as Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Canada. Finally, there were a relatively large proportion of dissertations/theses included in the review, which suggests possible publication bias among academic publishing. This issue has been previously raised, reasoning that “ … few scholars focused on the educational experiences of Asian Americans because Asian American students were seen as not having any problems worth studying” (Lee Citation2014, p. xi). Others have pointed out that

… over the past decade, approximately only one percent of articles published in five of the most widely read peer-reviewed academic journals in the field of higher education have given specific attention to Asian American or Pacific Islander college students. (Museus and Kiang Citation2009, 5)

Overall, the MMM not only obscures the structural barriers that many people of Asian descent experience (Choi Citation2018; Rice Citation2017), the MMM also operates to reproduce systems of social, educational and health and wellbeing inequality. Ultimately, the MMM functions to exacerbate and reproduce a racist social structure that disadvantages people of Asian descent and the fight for racial equity overall. As evident by the backlash of anti-Asian and anti-Chinese violence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the globalization of a virus also brought into focus the globalization of whiteness – with reports of violence against Asian people (Asian Australian Alliance Citation2020; Kamp et al. Citation2021; Wu, Qian, and Wilkes Citation2021) – finding hosts in countries with long histories of white racial domination. Being an “honorary white” was not protective in that context or in incidents where Asian women were publicly killed (Lee, Tan, and Ruppanner Citation2021; Studley Citation2022; Venkatraman Citation2022). Instead, the insidiousness of the MMM is its ability to be construed in largely positive terms (i.e. Asians as quiet achievers, hard-working, economic success stories) that masks racial inequities and functions to “oil” a white-dominated social structure (Bonilla-Silva Citation2012).

What we have shown through our review of the impacts of the MMM is that the complexities and positive/negative contradictions reflect the broader problem of structural racism. As Dhingra (Citation2016) argues, critiques of the MMM that remain at the level of trying to dispel a “model minority” by showing the ways not all Asian people are high achieving do not go far enough and instead maintain a “model” versus “problem” binary (223). To counter this binary including challenging those who uphold the idea of the MMM (both Asian and non-Asian people), Dhingra argues for developing a new “narrative of collective resistance” that emphasizes histories of collective grassroots action that recognizes structural conditions such as racial inequities to replace or at least overshadow dominant meritocratic discourse underlying the MMM that academic achievement, economic success and upward social mobility was primarily a matter of individual effort. What is required is to understand the broader consequences of the MMM, to stand against being complicit and complacent and the vital necessity to continue to question and act against a society structured by white supremacy while also creating spaces that create new narratives of resistance without (re)centring whiteness.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Wurundjeri and Bunurong Peoples of the Kulin Nation as the traditional owners of the unceded lands on which we work, and respectfully recognize Elders past and present. We thank Damien Chua, Laura Finlayson-Short and Mienah Sharif for their valuable assistance with screening and data extraction of articles.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Jessica Walton is supported by funding from the Australian Research Council [DE160100922].

Notes

1 According to the UK Census 2011, the proportion of the population that consists of Asian ethnic groups is approximately 7.0% (4,373,339 people) (Office for National Statistics Citation2011). In the U.S., the proportion of Asian Americans is 5.9% and this is growing rapidly (Budiman and Ruiz Citation2021; US Census Citation2019b). This compares with 15% in Canada where the categorization is related to “Asian visible minorities” (i.e. South Asian, Chinese, Filipino, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean and Japanese) (Statistics Canada Citation2016). In the Australian Census 2016, approx. 12.2% of people nominated their ancestry from an Asian geographic category (Australian Bureau of Statistics Citation2016) and 15.1% in New Zealand (Stats NZ Citation2019). Trends indicate that these proportions are rising among all these countries.

2 “Asian cultural values” has been conceptualized to refer to: collectivism, emotional self-control, conformity to norms, filial piety, humility, academic excellence (Kim, Li, and Ng Citation2005; Yoon et al. Citation2017).

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