4 - (SYM 9) Examining the Relationship Between Invalidation, Microaggressions, and Traumatic Symptoms of Discrimination in People of Color

Background: Extant literature suggests transdiagnostic factors influence the relationship between stress experienced by marginalized communities and adverse mental health outcomes. Such communities are at higher risk of experiencing forms of otherness, including invalidation. Invalidation is often described as a “ rejection of the valid” in that victims are made to feel like their emotional/physical response is incorrect or inappropriate. Chronic and traumatic invalidation has, most notably, been examined through the lens of the minority stress model, primarily addressing sexual and gender minority individuals. This model could have unique features in communities of color. More recently, aspects of discrimination have been explored at a micro-level--specifically microaggressions. This covert form of discrimination has been associated with traumatic stress in ethnic and racial groups. As such, this study seeks to examine the extent to which racial microaggressions predict trauma symptoms above and beyond invalidation; whether racial microaggressions moderate the relationship between invalidation and trauma symptoms; and if this relationship differs among racial and ethnic groups.

Methods: Participants (n=174) were recruited from a university in the southern U.S. between July 2022 and February 2023. Invalidation was measured by the Perceived Invalidation of Emotion Scale (PIES), trauma symptoms were measured using by Traumatic Symptoms of Discrimination Scale (TSDS), and microaggressions were measured using the Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions Scale (REMS). Hierarchical regression, dummy codes, and moderation analyses were used to examine the relationship between variables and groups.

Results: The first step of the hierarchical regression revealed that invalidation significantly predicted symptoms of traumatic stress, explaining 9% of the variance (R2= 0.09). The introduction of microaggressions explained an additional 18% of the variance and accounted for 12.5% of the unique variance in trauma symptoms (R2 =0.27; spr=.125). Moderation analysis yielded nonsignificant results. Hispanic (p< .001), Black (p< .05), and Multiracial participants (p< 0.5) had statistically significantly lower mean trauma symptoms when compared to Asian participants (p< .001).


Conclusions: Microaggressions are more predictive of trauma symptoms than invalidation and trauma symptom experience varies by racial and ethnic group. Future research could investigate this relationship in samples with intersectional identities.