Date on Senior Honors Thesis
5-2019
Document Type
Senior Honors Thesis
Degree Name
B.A.
Department
Psychological and Brain Sciences
Degree Program
College of Arts and Sciences
Author's Keywords
racial microaggressions; psychological distress; older cohorts; younger cohorts; ethnic groups
Abstract
This study examines the relationship between racial microaggressions and psychological distress and anger rumination among younger and older cohorts who belong to a racial or ethnic group other than White or European-American. The purpose of this study was to compare these relationships between older and younger cohorts. The hypotheses were that age will moderate the relationship between racial microaggressions and psychological distress and that age will moderate the relationship between racial microaggressions and anger rumination. A survey method was used to test the two hypotheses. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and were compensated $1 for their participation. The participants were divided into a younger group and older group to test the effect of age on the relationship between racial microaggressions and psychological distress. A test for difference between independent correlations was used to determine if the correlations of the younger and older groups significantly differed from each other, and a t-test was used to measure the relationship between age and experiences of racial microaggressions. The correlations of the younger and older groups did not significantly differ from each other; thus, the results did not confirm either of the hypotheses. Future research should examine how the effect of age on racial microaggressions and psychological distress varies across different racial and ethnic groups.
Recommended Citation
Thompson, Shayla R., "Racial microaggressions cohort differences." (2019). College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses. Paper 197.
Retrieved from https://ir.library.louisville.edu/honors/197
Lay Summary
This thesis studied the effect of age on the relationship between racial microaggressions and psychological distress along with anger rumination. Specifically, this thesis sought to examine if racial microaggressions affect the mental health of younger adults differently than older adults. The participants were divided into a younger group and older group to test the effect of age. The results showed that the effects of racial microaggressions on mental health did not differ between younger adults and older adults.
