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Abstract
Asian Americans centered the stage of the affirmative action debate in college admission after Students For Fair Admission (SFFA) sued Harvard University in 2014 for using a race-conscious admission process unfairly for Asian American applicants. Although this affirmative action in college admission for Asian Americans has been the subject of intense research and litigation interest lately, there is little empirically verified knowledge of attitudes toward affirmative action in college admission of Asian American adults. Moreover, previous quantitative research has regarded Asian Americans as a monolithic group, masking heterogeneous characteristics of them in terms of attitudes toward affirmative action. The purpose of this research, thus, is to close that gap in knowledge about Asian American affirmative action and its intended beneficiaries. Applying a regression analysis model to 2016 post-election National Asian American Survey (NAAS) data, this paper examines what factors affect support for affirmative action in college admission by 10 Asian ethnic groups. This paper found a statistically significant difference in attitudes toward affirmative action within Asian ethnic groups. Furthermore, factors including the strength of racial identity had a conspicuously different effect according to ethnic groups. This study adds to previous literature by demonstrating distinct differences in affirmative action attitudes within Asian ethnic groups, even among east Asian groups as well as south Asian groups. The study suggests baseline findings for future research on what factors should be considered concerning Asian Americans and affirmative action together.