Impact of racial microaggressions in psychotherapy vignettes with african american clients: An experimental analogue design.

Abstract

Mental health researchers have focused on promoting culturally sensitive clinical care (Herman et al., 2007; Whaley & Davis, 2007), emphasizing the need to understand how biases may impact client well-being. Clients report that their therapists commit racial microaggressions—subtle, sometimes unintentional, racial slights—during treatment (Owen et al., 2014). Yet, existing studies often rely on retrospective evaluations of clients and cannot establish the causal impact of varying ambiguity of microaggressions on clients. This study uses an experimental analogue design to examine offensiveness, emotional reactions, and evaluations of the interaction across three distinct levels of microaggression statements: subtle, moderate, and overt. We recruited 158 adult African American participants and randomly assigned them to watch a brief counseling vignette. We found significant differences between the control and three microaggression statements on all outcome variables. We did not find significant differences between the microaggression conditions. This study, in conjunction with previous correlational research, highlights the detrimental impact of microaggressions within psychotherapy, regardless of racially explicit content.