The Influence of Rejection Sensitivity on Perceiving Racial Microaggressions and Anxiety Among South Asian Students

Abstract

Past research has shown that three in four people of color experience discrimination within their daily lives. However, despite the well-known link between racial microaggressions and mental health, little is known about the impact of microaggressions on South Asian students (Beharry & Crozier, 2008; Ogunyemi et al., 2020; Torres-Harding et al., 2020; Wong-Padoongpatt et al., 2020). This study sought to examine the relationships between previously experienced discrimination, rejection sensitivity, and emotional/physiological reactions among 119 post-secondary South Asian Americans using a two-part longitudinal design. Participants completed self-report measures (rejection sensitivity, previous experience with discrimination, mood). Participants also recorded their heartrate via smartwatches prior to and after viewing a compilation of videos clips depicting discriminatory or neutral interactions with South Asians within popular shows/movies. An independent sample t-test demonstrated no significant differences between the intervention and control groups. However, correlation and mediation analysis revealed small to moderate associations among discrimination, rejection sensitivity, race centrality, mood, and physiological responses to microaggressions. Race centrality did not moderate the relationships between any of the variables in the model. Findings from this study suggest important relationships between previous discriminatory experiences and the emotional/physiological responses to a situation portraying racial microaggressions among South Asian Americans. Information from this study may help to inform strategies to mitigate distress associated with racial microaggression among South Asian American students and help increase awareness among post secondary institutes.