Date of Award

5-2017

Document Type

Open Access Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Art (BA)

Department

Psychology

Advisor

Tahirah Abdullah

Director

Rajini Srikanth

Subject Categories

Multicultural Psychology | Psychology | Social Psychology

Abstract

Much of the literature examining anxiety, depression, and trauma among Black women fails to consider the potential impact of racism. This thesis seeks to begin addressing this gap by assessing the relation between racial microaggressions and mental health for Black women. The primary goal of this thesis is to use data from a nationwide online study, The Resistance and Empowerment Against Racism Study (conducted by Dr. Karen Suyemoto & Dr. Tahirah Abdullah), to examine the effects of racial microaggressions on depression, anxiety, and trauma for 179 Black women with different occupational prestige. Measures such as The Racial Microaggressions Scale (RMAS; Torres-Harding, Andrade, Jr, Diaz, 2012), the civilian version of the PTSD Checklist (PCL-C; Henry & Crawford, 2005), and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) are used in this study to assess racial microaggressions and mental health outcomes for participants. There are four hypotheses guiding this thesis: 1) Black women will experience subscales of invisibility, sexualization, and environmental microaggressions more frequently than criminality microaggressions 2) Black women with higher occupational prestige will experience microaggressions more frequently than Black women with lower occupational prestige, 3) Increased frequency of microaggressions will be associated with increased depression, anxiety, and trauma symptoms for Black women, and 4) For Black women with higher occupational prestige, experiencing microaggressions will be associated with more symptoms of depression, anxiety, and trauma, as compared to Black women with lower occupational prestige. Results from this study can be used to inform psychologists in both academic and clinical settings about the intersectionality of race, socioeconomic status, gender, and mental health for Black women. Limitations, future directions, and clinical implications will be discussed.

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