Discrimination and Perceived Cultural Mismatch Increase Status-Based Identity Uncertainty.

Periods of social mobility, such as attending college, can challenge one's status-based identity, leading to uncertainty around one's status in society. Status uncertainty is associated with poorer well-being and academic outcomes. Little is known, however, about what experiences lead to status uncertainty. The current longitudinal study investigated discrimination experiences and cultural mismatch as predictors of status uncertainty. We propose that discrimination indirectly predicts increased status uncertainty by increasing perceived cultural mismatch with the university. Participants were Latinx college students, all of whom were low-income and/or first generation to college. Discrimination experiences were measured at the end of participants' first year. Cultural mismatch and status uncertainty were measured at the end of Year 2. Status uncertainty was measured again at the end of Year 3. Results indicated that students who experienced more frequent discrimination felt more cultural mismatch 1 year later, and, in turn, reported increased status uncertainty over the following year.

Reporting Rape: Stigmatizing Reactions to Survivors Who Seek Accountability.

Rape survivors face stigma when disclosing their experiences. We hypothesized that a rape survivor who formally reports their rape would experience more stigma than one who does not, and that this effect will be stronger when the perceiver is a man or low in support for sexual consent. Across two studies using self-report, observational, and psychophysiological measures, we found that a reporting survivor was seen more negatively than an identical survivor who did not report their rape. Men and those low in support for sexual consent also responded more negatively to the survivor. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Sleep, Emotions, and Sense of Belonging: A Daily Experience Study.

Sleep has strong influences on affective and social experiences. However, less is known about the reciprocal effects of sleep, affect, and social experiences at a daily level, and little work has considered racial/ethnic minorities at high risk for social disconnection and discrimination. A 7-day daily experience study assessed the bidirectional relationships between daily sleep quality, affect, social experiences, and overall well-being among a sample of Latinx undergraduates (N = 109). Each morning, participants reported on their previous night's sleep. Each evening, they reported their positive and negative affect, experiences of belonging and unfair treatment, and overall well-being that day. Results indicate that, at a daily level, sleep quality predicts next-day affect, belonging, and well-being. Reciprocally, only daily well-being predicts sleep quality. Findings highlight sleep as a potentially powerful antecedent of affective and social experiences likely to be particularly potent for underrepresented minority groups. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00088-0.

Diversity Initiatives and White Americans' Perceptions of Racial Victimhood.

Seven experiments explore whether organizational diversity initiatives heighten White Americans' concerns about the respect and value afforded toward their racial group and increase their perceptions of anti-White bias. The presence (vs. absence) of organizational diversity initiatives (i.e., diversity awards, diversity training, diversity mission statements) caused White Americans to perceive Whites as less respected and valued than Blacks and to blame a White man's rejection for a promotion on anti-White bias. Several moderators were tested, including evidence that Whites were clearly advantaged within the organization, that the rejected White candidate was less meritorious than the Black candidate, that promotion opportunities were abundant (vs. scarce), and individual differences related to support for the status hierarchy and identification with Whites. There was little evidence that these moderators reduced Whites' perceptions of diversity initiatives as harmful to their racial group.

Latinx identity and intersectional responses to stigma.

OBJECTIVES: Belonging to a stigmatized group presents a predicament between relying on your group as a source of support versus renouncing your group to avoid stigma and discrimination. We investigate how perceived stigma affects changes in group identification and whether this depends on other axes of advantage to which participants have access. We hypothesized that for Latinx undergraduate students, perceptions of stigma would predict increased ethnic identification but that access to other markers of advantage would dampen this effect. METHODS: We measured ethnic identification, perceived stigma against one's ethnic group, gender, income, and first-generation college status among Latinx undergraduates (N = 171). One year later, we assessed changes in ethnic identification using the same measure. Regression analyses assessed whether gender, income, and first-generation college status moderated the effect of perceived stigma on end-of-year ethnic identification, controlling for initial ethnic identification. RESULTS: Controlling for initial ethnic identification, end-of-year ethnic identification was higher when participants perceived that their ethnic group was regarded negatively by others. However, this effect was only present among relatively low-income and first-generation college students. CONCLUSION: Intersectional perspectives are needed to understand how individuals manage stigmatized identities. Stigmatized individuals who face disadvantages in other areas may be more likely to depend on their devalued groups as a source of esteem and belonging. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring urbanicity and its relationship with stigma and well-being outcomes for people with serious mental illnesses.

Following deinstitutionalization, services and housing for people with serious mental illnesses (SMI) became concentrated in economically disadvantaged urban centers. As these areas gentrify, affordable housing for people with SMI is increasingly found in nonurban areas. Although nonurban environments provide benefits for the general population, people with SMI living in nonurban areas perceive higher levels of mental illness stigma. Thus, the relationship between perceived stigma and negative outcomes such as high psychological distress and low sense of community may be stronger in nonurban areas. Data collected from 300 adults with SMI living in urban and nonurban areas were analyzed using a moderated regression design. Urbanicity did not moderate the relationships between perceived stigma and negative outcomes. However, associations were found between urbanicity, perceived stigma, sense of community, and psychological distress, supporting the need to address mental illness stigma in all settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Discrimination, health, and the costs and benefits of believing in system fairness.

OBJECTIVE: For minority students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, attending university and succeeding despite social and academic stressors is often considered the ultimate marker of resilience. However, a growing body of work suggests that there may be health costs to upward mobility for such students. This study investigated whether believing that the social system is fair simultaneously promotes psychological health while undermining the physical health of Latinx students experiencing frequent discrimination. METHOD: Two hundred thirty-three low-income and/or first-generation Latinx college students were followed through their first year at university. Discrimination experiences, psychological health, and physical health risk (a suite of inflammatory, biomorphic, and cardiovascular risk markers) were assessed upon entering university and at the end of the academic year. RESULTS: Regardless of discrimination experiences, believing in system fairness predicted higher end-of-year psychological health (controlling for initial psychological health). However, for students who experienced substantial discrimination at university, believing in system fairness also led to higher end-of-year physical health risk (controlling for baseline levels of discrimination and physical health risk). CONCLUSIONS: Beliefs that allow socioeconomically disadvantaged minority students to thrive psychologically may also put them at physical health risk when facing frequent discrimination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Presumed fair: ironic effects of organizational diversity structures.

This research tests the hypothesis that the presence (vs. absence) of organizational diversity structures causes high-status group members (Whites, men) to perceive organizations with diversity structures as procedurally fairer environments for underrepresented groups (racial minorities, women), even when it is clear that underrepresented groups have been unfairly disadvantaged within these organizations. Furthermore, this illusory sense of fairness derived from the mere presence of diversity structures causes high-status group members to legitimize the status quo by becoming less sensitive to discrimination targeted at underrepresented groups and reacting more harshly toward underrepresented group members who claim discrimination. Six experiments support these hypotheses in designs using 4 types of diversity structures (diversity policies, diversity training, diversity awards, idiosyncratically generated diversity structures from participants' own organizations) among 2 high-status groups in tests involving several types of discrimination (discriminatory promotion practices, adverse impact in hiring, wage discrimination). Implications of these experiments for organizational diversity and employment discrimination law are discussed.