Honors College Theses

Publication Date

12-17-2024

Major

Psychology (B.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Lindsey B. Stone

Abstract

Racial microaggressions are intentional or unintentional slights toward members of a marginalized community that may come in the form of verbal, behavioral, or environmental insults. Black/African Americans experience racial microaggressions frequently, and these experiences threaten mental health. Specifically, experiencing more racial microaggressions is linked with a risk for social anxiety. However, not all individuals within the community go on to experience social anxiety. Therefore, the present study sought to identify which individuals are more vulnerable to social anxiety given experiences of racism. Poorer emotion regulation (i.e., the ability to manage emotions) is a known risk factor for anxiety. Thus, I hypothesized that RSA (respiratory sinus arrhythmia), a peripheral index of emotion regulation, may serve as a moderator that predicts social anxiety risk given ongoing experiences with racial microaggressions. I recruited Black/African American undergraduate students attending Georgia Southern University to complete self-report surveys and a brief psychophysiological assessment (N = 53). Results revealed that the interaction between experiences of racial microaggressions and baseline RSA increased the prediction of social anxiety symptoms, accounting for more than 3% of the variance in social anxiety symptoms, reflecting a modest effect size (r = .18). Although this effect did not reach statistical significance given my small sample size, I found a resilience pattern predicting risk for social anxiety symptoms. In short, only individuals with a higher baseline RSA and experiencing fewer racial microaggressions are protected from social anxiety. Clinical and theoretical implications will be discussed.

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