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Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal

Category

Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences > Liberal Arts > Psychology

Received

October 30, 2020

Accepted

January 18, 2021

Published

February 26, 2021

Authors

Aaron Cheng (AC)¹,²*, Brooklyn King (BK)¹, Aldo Barrita (AB)¹, Anthony King (AK)¹, and Gloria Wong-Padoongpatt (GW)¹

Author Affiliations

¹Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA.

²School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA.

Corresponding Author

*Aaron Cheng, chenga4@unlv.nevada.edu

Corresponding Author ORCID iD

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5791-4896

Author Contributions

AC: Analyzed data, drafted the manuscript, made significant edits to the manuscript, and approved the version to be published

BK: Analyzed data, drafted the manuscript, made significant edits to the manuscript, generated tables and figures, and approved the version to be published

AB: Substantially contributed to the research design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation, and approved the version to be published

AK: Substantially contributed to the research design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation, and approved the version to be published

GW: Substantially contributed to the research design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation, revised the manuscript critically, and approved the version to be published

Data Availability Statement

The authors of this article confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restrictions.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Ethical Considerations

Proper Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was granted before the start of this study. All participants were required to complete an informed consent form that detailed the purpose of this study, the procedures, risks of participation, and the inclusion criteria. If participants did not provide consent and/or did not meet the inclusion criteria, they were not included in this study.

Funding

This project was funded by the Department of Psychology at UNLV.

Abstract

Microaggressions are typically brief and common behavioral/verbal indignities that communicate a sense of hostility, derogatory, or negative perception towards a targeted group. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we observed an increase in the amount of microassaults, a more intentional type of microaggression, towards the Asian American population. In our study, we used a two-way 2x2 (Race: Asian Americans vs. White Americans; Time: before vs. during COVID-19) analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with repeated measures on one factor (Time) to determine whether there was a statistical significance between race in the experiences of microassaults before and during COVID-19. We used a self-report survey method to gather data from the participants. Overall, the findings from our study suggest that Asian Americans experienced an increase of microassaults during COVID-19 compared to before the pandemic. Moreover, this change in experiences over time was significantly different for White Americans. This study shows the importance of recognizing this phenomenon, and addresses the issues on inclusivity, cultural-awareness, and compassion. Moving forward, it is important that we are aware of social influences on race-related experiences among Asian Americans, and other marginalized communities.

Keywords

Microaggressions, COVID-19, Asian Americans

Submission Type

Primary research article

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