Anxiety, Stress, and Trauma Symptoms in African Americans: Negative Affectivity Does Not Explain the Relationship between Microaggressions and Psychopathology

Abstract

Prior research has demonstrated a clear relationship between experiences of racial microaggressions and various indicators of psychological unwellness. One concern with these findings is that the role of negative affectivity, considered a marker of neuroticism, has not been considered. Negative affectivity has previously been correlated to experiences of racial discrimination and psychological unwellness and has been suggested as a cause of the observed relationship between microaggressions and psychopathology. We examined the relationships between self-reported frequency of experiences of microaggressions and several mental health outcomes (i.e., anxiety [Beck Anxiety Inventory], stress [General Ethnic and Discrimination Scale], and trauma symptoms [Trauma Symptoms of Discrimination Scale]) in 177 African American and European American college students, controlling for negative affectivity (the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule) and gender. Results indicated that African Americans experience more racial discrimination than European Americans. Negative affectivity in African Americans appears to be significantly related to some but not all perceptions of the experience of discrimination. A strong relationship between racial mistreatment and symptoms of psychopathology was evident, even after controlling for negative affectivity. In summary, African Americans experience clinically measurable anxiety, stress, and trauma symptoms as a result of racial mistreatment, which cannot be wholly explained by individual differences in negative affectivity. Future work should examine additional factors in these relationships, and targeted interventions should be developed to help those suffering as a result of racial mistreatment and to reduce microaggressions.

Microaggressions: Clarification, Evidence, and Impact

“…For example, using the Differential Emotions Scale (DES) with older adults, Consedine, Magai, Cohen, and Gillespie (2002) found that Whites had significantly greater negative emotionality than Blacks. Further, our own research found the same relationship between negative affectivity using the Positive and Negative Affectivity Scale (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988): White students showed significantly greater trait negative affectivity than did Black students (Williams, Kanter, & Ching, 2018). We then examined the relationships between frequency of experiencing microaggressions using the RMAS and measures of anxiety (Beck Anxiety Inventory; Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988), stress (General Ethnic Discrimination Scale; Landrine, Klonoff, Corral, Fernandez, & Roesch, 2006), and trauma (Trauma Symptoms of Discrimination Scale; Williams, Printz, & DeLapp, 2018).…”

Microaggression Research and Application: Clarifications, Corrections, and Common Ground

“…Williams reports that for two of these three hierarchical regression analyses, NE measures account for sizeable chunks, but not all, of the variance in the association between perceived racial mistreatment and psychopathology, and perceived microaggressions account for substantial amounts of additional variance (Williams, Kanter, & Ching, 2018). With one exception, these findings actually corroborate what I had hypothesized in my article: NE tends to account for some but not all of the relation between microaggressions and adverse mental-health outcomes.…”

Intersectional insights from an MDMA-assisted psychotherapy training trial: An open letter to racial/ethnic and sexual/gender minorities

“…However, certain experiences outside of the Criterion A umbrella can still cause a traumatic reaction and can potentially exacerbate an individual's ability to cope with and recover from conventional Criterion A events (e.g., Williams & Leins, 2016). These non-Criterion A stressors include exposure to racist acts (i.e., racial trauma) and additional forms of oppression based on, or at the intersection(s) with, gender, sexuality, and other stigmatized identities (Chae, Lincoln, & Jackson, 2011;Ching, Lee, Chen, So, & Williams, 2018;Holmes, Facemire, & Da Fonseca, 2016;Pieterse, Carter, Evans, & Walter, 2010;Williams et al, 2014;Williams, Kanter, & Ching, 2018;Williams, Peña, & Mier-Chairez, 2017). For example, sexual/gender minorities of color are at risk of experiencing structural stressors such as homophobia or transphobia in their ethnic communities, as well as racism in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual+ (LGBTQIA+) community (for an intersectional conceptual model, see Ching et al, 2018).…”