Topic > The Effects of Microaggression on Bisexual Women

Index IntroductionMicroaggressionResearchFirst Day CalculationsSecond and Fifth Day CalculationsResultsDiscussionConclusionIntroductionEvery day, minorities face discrimination and prejudice that deteriorate their mental health. Some groups such as bisexual women are particularly vulnerable to these confrontations known as microaggressions, which are characterized by verbal attacks and harassment. Whether implicit or explicit, these comments have catastrophic effects on the victim's level of depression and suicidality. The term microaggression itself was first used to explain the impact of derogatory racist actions that Black people regularly experienced. Today, microaggression has expanded to include the acute and chronic effects of oppression of racial and social groups from various backgrounds (Constantine and Sue 2007). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original EssayMicroaggressionResearch by Sue et al (2007) further established the concept of microaggression by separating it into three forms; microaggressions, microinsults and microinvalidations. For starters, microaggressions are characterized by oral and non-oral “racially inciting” attacks made to intentionally antagonize the victim. The recent popularization of the use of racial slurs on social media has effectively deemed microaggressions as normal behavior. Moving forward, the next form of microaggression is microinvalidation. This behavior is characterized by conscious and unconscious ways of ostracizing or denying the obstacles to which the victim is regularly exposed. Examples of microinvalidation are present in conversations involving color-blind statements that invalidate the recipient's existence as a racial or ethnic minority. The person dominating the conversation may also try to deny blame by attempting to downplay the victim's situation by using statements such as "I didn't mean that" to further renounce the minority. Finally, the third element known as microinvalidation, involves the use of verbal and non-verbal actions to subtly mask the real humiliating messages towards the victim. A common use of microinvalidation includes the assumption that minority groups such as African-Canadians receive athletic scholarships to attend prestigious post-secondary institutions. This message devalues ​​the academic abilities of African Canadians while placing emphasis on their athleticism. These comments may be perceived as a compliment by the sender, but the hidden meaning is degrading and invalidating. These three situations in total fall into the category of the ambiguous nature of microaggression. Their comments all imply some degree of alienation of not being “African-Canadian” enough because they do not fit the national character traits. An experimental study of microaggression ambiguity conducted by Tao et al used four different levels of ambiguity; control (no microaggressions), very ambiguous microaggressions, ambiguous microaggressions, and overt microaggressions to examine how certain forms of racial microaggressions, microinvalidation, are perceived by White and ethnic participants. The findings concluded that both groups are equally capable of detecting microaggressions, supporting the theory that “the burden of unearthing these cultural ruptures” does not fall on the victim of microaggressions. (Tao, 2014) Tao's study demonstrates that both parties in the conversation are aware of even the dominant's most ambiguous comment. ResearchThe current project ofresearch conducted by the University of Miami, Dalhousie University and Mount Holyoke College explains women's experiences with microaggressions, micro statements and how these two experiences correlate with intense feelings of depression and suicidal thoughts. (Schwarx, 2007). In addition to this, the research methodology (a system of methods that a researcher can use to collect data to answer a question) used a significant amount of data collected from participants' diary entries. Using this method in the study evidently showed correlations between mental health and bisexual microstatements and microaggressions. However, it is important to note that due to the subjectivity of mental health, as well as various other factors such as community influences and internalized stigmas, they may explain different outcomes between individuals. The research project's hypothesis predicted that daily exposure to microaggressions (the dependent variable) will increase levels of depression and suicidal thoughts (the independent variable), which will subsequently decrease levels of happiness. (Salim, Robinson, & Flanders, 2019) Conversely, the study also hypothesized that frequent experiences with microaffirmations will result in decreased levels of depression and suicidal thoughts which in turn increase levels of happiness. The project theorized factors such as general social support, a sense of belonging to the LGBT community and a degree of self-esteem were negatively correlated with depressive and suicidal thoughts and positively correlated with intense emotions of happiness. Day One Calculations To begin the study, participants were asked to identify their sexual identity and their “race,” ethnicity, or cultural identity for a demographic. In addition to this, five tests, including the Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale, the Medical Outcome Study Social Support scale, the Connectedness to the LGBT Community scale and other forms were used to collect various data to support the study and provide sufficient evidence to cross ethical boundaries. Arguably, practicing proper research ethics may be the most important step in the process. This includes establishing respect for researchers and investigators, particularly regarding privacy rights, understanding of the study, and their ability to withdraw from research. Day Two Calculations - Five From day two onwards, two scales were used to identify microaggression and microaffirmation. The first assessment, known as the Bisexual Microaggression Scale for Women, featured 38 comments measuring threats to a woman's bisexual identity and other negative statements about her sexuality. Scale items ranged from “Someone said they didn't understand bisexuals” to “Someone made sexual advances towards me when I told them I was bisexual.” (Flanders, LeBerton, & Robinson, 2018) Candidates were then asked to rank the items from one to five to indicate the applicability of the comment. The second test was the Bisexual Microaffirmation Scale for Women, which assessed certain events that declared women's bisexual identity. Similar to the first test, the scale consisted of 16 items ranging from “someone understood bisexuality easily” to “someone challenged biphobia when they saw it” which also had corresponding 5-point scales to answer each question. Additionally, three questionnaires were used from day two to day five to assess depression (the same test was used from day one), suicidality, and happiness to add statistical analysis. Results The results of the Bisexual Microaggression Scale concluded that the average score ofmicroaggressions for the research project was 1.26. out of 5 while the bisexual microaffirmation scale scored 1.88 among participants. It was noted that the most regularly reported microaggressions were “A bisexual character on a show was not labeled as bisexual” while the most commonly experienced microstatement was “someone provided emotional social support.” (Salim, Robinson, & Flanders, 2019) The first pattern the researchers examined was the association of study predictors with depressive thoughts. In the resulting data, a two-level predictor was used to identify the degree of depression among bisexual women. The first level is daily experiences with microaggressions and microaffirmations, and the second level using “self-esteem, social support, connectedness to the LGT community, internalized binegativity” (Salim, Robinson, & Flanders, 2019) as well as first-day depression scores. The results suggest that at level one, only microaggressions were linked to depression, implying that microaffirmations had little effect on depression outcome. At level two, self-esteem and day one depression outcomes were found to be an important indicator of depression. This implies that low levels of self-esteem and predetermined depression are attributed to gloomy feelings on the part of the individuals in the study. Moving forward, suicidal feelings were examined to determine the correlation between study predictors and suicide using the same two-level predictors as the depression model. The scores concluded that at Level One, only microaggressions were related to suicidality, while Level Two suggested that first-day depression, transgender status, and racialized identity were noteworthy for predicting the degree of suicidality. This finding explains that those who identify as trans, nonbinary, or people of color may have elevated suicide scores among participants who do not identify as such. Similarly, there was a minor relationship between other determinants such as microaffirmations and connection to the LGBT community with their correlation with suicide. The final model examined in the research project was happiness, and without speculation only microaggressions were related to applicants' level of happiness. for Level One, but only self-esteem played a role in influencing happiness scores for Level Two. Similar to the previous two models, no relationship was found between microaffirmations or other elements that contribute to happiness. Discussion The results from the three models support the study's hypothesis that “microaggressions are negatively associated with mental health and well-being.” Evidence from the research methodology suggests that regular exposure to microaggression correlates with increased depression scores and feelings of suicide and decreased happiness scores. Beyond this, substantial confirmation from daily diary studies demonstrates that microaggressions are linked to stress, anxiety, and well-being in sexual minority groups. Additionally, the research findings explain how both overt and subtle discrimination can negatively impact the mental health of bisexual women. However, surprisingly, microstatements were not an important indicator for all three models with bisexual women. These findings did not correlate well with the hypothesis that links between positive sexual identity experiences will subsequently reduce levels of depression and suicide while increasing happiness. A possible explanation for this puzzle..