While perceived discrimination on college campuses compromises the self-esteem, well-being and mental health of ethnic minority students, new psychology research from The University of Texas at Austin suggests the impostor phenomenon may worsen these effects.
The impostor phenomenon — or feeling like a fraud due to an inability to internalize success — has been linked to psychological distress among ethnic minority students, research shows. In the Journal of Counseling Psychology, UT Austin researchers found that these feelings of fraudulence may fuel the negative relationship between perceived discrimination and depression and anxiety among ethnic minority college students, especially African Americans.
“Research estimates that at least 70 percent of the population feels like an impostor,” said Kevin Cokley, a UT Austin professor of educational psychology and African and African Diaspora Studies, as well as the Director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis. “So it is a common feeling experienced by most people at some point in their lives.”
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