Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Cottrell, Catherine

Keywords

Race, Gender, Racism, Microaggressions, Mental Health

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

The way racism is expressed has shifted in the last fifty years, as overt modes of racism have become outdated and there has been a shift to more insidious forms of racism. Nevertheless, these attitudes can have a similarly negative impact on racial and ethnic minorities, with outcomes including worse physical and mental health. Racial and ethnic minorities receive less care overall, because there are structural and institutional barriers in place that prevent racial and ethnic minorities from accessing mental health care. For this study, however, I wanted to look at if experiencing these acts of racism is correlated with individual’s attitudes toward seeking mental health care, and how these correlations could explain present disparities. This study focused on microaggressions, a subtle form of discrimination that involves the perpetuation of ideas that convey racial inferiority to racial and ethnic minorities. The correlation looked at in this study was between racial and ethnic microaggressions and individuals’ attitudes toward seeking mental health care. This study looked at these correlations using the data of 600 participants, who were asked to complete the Racial Ethnic Microaggressions Scale and the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Mental Help Scale. The data supported this hypothesis, and an intersectional analysis of race and gender revealed that there exist correlations between negative experiences based on one’s identity and existence of less enthusiastic attitudes toward seeking care.

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