Family Communication Patterns and Expressing Racial Microaggressions Amongst White Adult Children

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although much is known about the harmful consequences of racial microaggressions toward people of color, few studies have examined the factors associated with expressing racial microaggressions. This study investigated the relationship between White young adults’ perceptions of family communication environments and their self-reported microaggressive communication toward people of color. Participants (N = 242) reported on conversation and conformity orientations as well as their engagement in four different microaggressive behaviors (i.e. assumptions of inferiority, assumptions of criminality, exoticization, microinvalidations). Results revealed that White young adult children who reported higher levels of both conformity and conversation (i.e. consensual families) orientation reported higher levels of microaggressions whereas those who reported lower levels of conformity orientation and higher levels of conversation orientation (i.e. pluralistic families) reported the lowest levels. Practically, our results offer insight into the family dynamics and potentially promote and mitigate the perpetuation of microaggressions in White families.