Browsing by Subject "Discrimination"

An abundance of research in the social sciences has demonstrated a persistent bias against nonnative English speakers (Giles & Billings, 2004; Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010). Yet, organizational scholars have only begun to investigate the underlying mechanisms that drive the bias against nonnative speakers and subsequently design interventions to mitigate these biases. In this dissertation, I offer an integrative model to organize past explanations for accent-based bias into a coherent framework, and posit that nonnative accents elicit social perceptions that have implications at the personal, relational, and group level. I also seek to complement the existing emphasis on main effects of accents, which focuses on the general tendency to discriminate against those with accents, by examining moderators that shed light on the conditions under which accent-based bias is most likely to occur. Specifically, I explore the idea that people’s beliefs about the controllability of accents can moderate their evaluations toward nonnative speakers, such that those who believe that accents can be controlled are more likely to demonstrate a bias against nonnative speakers. I empirically test my theoretical model in three studies in the context of entrepreneurial funding decisions. Results generally supported the proposed model. By examining the micro foundations of accent-based bias, the ideas explored in this dissertation set the stage for future research in an increasingly multilingual world.

Despite numerous studies demonstrating high rates of discrimination and poor mental health among transgender people in Western countries, little research has been conducted on this population in Sri Lanka. As such, the primary objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of discrimination experienced by transgender people in the workplace, health care, and family settings. Additionally, we investigated the potential association between discrimination and adverse mental health outcomes, including current depression, anxiety disorders, and low self-esteem. In Galle, 100 transgender participants were recruited through snowball sampling and then completed the survey through face-to-face interviews. The survey consisted of five sections: sociodemographic information, mental health scales, and discrimination experience in the workplace, health care, and family settings. We reported the prevalence of discrimination and adverse mental health outcomes. We also estimated the prevalence ratios of current depression and anxiety disorder, which are associated with work inaccessibility and workplace discrimination, adjusting for age, education, and gender identity in separate Poisson regression models. The study found that school harassment (67%), workplace insults (63.5%), and work inaccessibility (47.4%) were the most commonly reported types of discrimination among transgender participants. Among them, the prevalence of current depression, anxiety disorder, and low self-esteem were 44%, 38%, and 81%, respectively. Furthermore, work inaccessibility was associated with a 16% increase in the prevalence of depression. Workplace discrimination, as measured by two categories (1 or 2 types of discrimination, ≥3 types of discrimination) was associated with greater prevalence (41%-56%) of depression and anxiety (22% - 46%) than non-discrimination, although all of those associations were not statistically significant. The high prevalence of discrimination against transgender people presented in the study highlights the urgent need for legislative changes to protect their rights. Future studies should aim to identify coping resources and develop evidence-based interventions to minimize the adverse mental health consequences of discrimination. It is expected that the researchers and transgender voluntary groups who had been involved in the study may transform the study results into meaningful real-world interventions.

This thesis explores some key reasons why it is often very difficult for Christians to love “racially” different Christians. Examining over eighty years of neuroscience and psychological research reveals key understandings about how the brain works when experiencing people who are racially different. Four psychological processes are major contributors to implicit biases that form mental barriers, feed stereotypes, cause discrimination, and lead to individual and institutional racism. These implicit biases are key obstacles to our call to cultivate a beloved community. Research suggests that once biases are identified, actions that counter biases are effective when the stimulus is ongoing. Building off these findings, I design a Bible Study referencing group psychology and theological reflection to be used with an intentionally diverse group of church leaders. By focusing on brain processes that impede racial reconciliation in conversation with Scripture, I develop a tool that begins healing to some of the forces that undermine unity and violate the integrity of the body of Christ.

The social gradient of health is pervasive and unrelenting. Across nearly any layer of society – race, religion, economic standing, or others – the populations worst off in terms health are also the most socially disadvantaged. Over three studies, this dissertation examines some of the experiences that underlie the connection between social disadvantage and health, namely internalized perceptions of status, interpersonal interactions, and institutional actions. The first study examines the link between adolescents’ perceived social status and their mental health at a range of ages, identifying at what age mental health problems begin to track perceptions of status, as well as contextual factors that do (or do not) relate to perceptions of status. In the second study, data from a nationally representative survey in France are used to document rates of reporting discrimination within the healthcare setting by gender, immigrant status, race/ethnicity, and religion. Rates of foregoing medical care are also documented across the same groups, and the potential explanatory role of discrimination toward disparities in foregone care is then investigated. The third and final study looks at the role of institutional stigma, using state bans of Sharia law in the USA as an exemplary case of stigmatizing policies with minimal material consequences. National birth record data for the USA is used, and the variation in policy enactment over time and space is leveraged to examine birth outcomes for Muslim women who were pregnant at the time their state passed a ban. Findings reveal a decrease in the secondary sex ratio to targeted women, suggesting the stigmatizing policy acts as a population-level stressor with consequences for maternal health.

Are women of color viewed as non-prototypical victims of gender and racial discrimination? What are the implications of non-prototypicality in this context? In this dissertation, I seek to answer these questions by exploring the relative gender discrimination prototypicality of three subgroups of women (i.e., White women vs. Black women and Asian women) and relative racial discrimination prototypicality of four racial subgroups (i.e., Black women vs. Black men, Asian women vs. Asian men). Further, I examine how victim non-prototypicality influences both the believability and financial remedy outcomes for those who allege discrimination.

To this end, in Chapter 1, I review the intersectional invisibility hypothesis (Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008) and BIAS map framework (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2007, 2008), discussing their implications for both the believability and treatment of discrimination victims. Integrating these perspectives, I develop a series of predictions regarding Black women’s discrimination non-prototypicality, as well and its downstream consequences for the believability of their discrimination allegations and the financial remedy they receive in discrimination cases, compared to White women and Black men. Specifically, I predict that Black women’s categorical non-prototypicality will reduce the believability of their discrimination claims, but that their non-prototypical attributes will lead to divergent treatment (i.e., financial remedy awards), depending on the type of discrimination alleged.

Chapter 2 presents 9 studies that test the hypotheses outlined in Chapter 1. Leveraging discrimination data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, I demonstrate both the reduced believability of Black women’s discrimination claims and the predicted divergent consequences on financial remedy they receive in gender (Study 1a) versus racial (Study 1b) discrimination cases. I then examine discrimination prototypes, as well as the attributes underlying these prototypes and the emotions they elicit, with an emphasis on prototypical warmth (Study 2). Following these studies, I explore the effects of claimant race and gender on claim believability (Studies 3a–3d), mediated by discrimination prototypicality (Studies 3a and 3b). Finally, I examine the role of prototypical warmth and the induction of pity and contempt in informing the financial remedy awarded in gender (Study 4a) and racial discrimination (Study 4b) cases.

Extending the findings presented in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 discusses how these principles may be applied to Asian women and Asian men. Here, I describe competing perspectives regarding the relative gender discrimination prototypicality of Asian women and White women and relative racial discrimination prototypicality of Asian women and Asian men. I also predict that Asian female victims of gender discrimination will be viewed as less warm and elicit less pity than White women, disadvantaging them in the financial remedy process. However, Asian women should receive more financial remedy when alleging racial discrimination than Asian men, due to increased perceptions of their warmth and their attenuated elicitation of contempt. Following this discussion, I present the results of 6 studies that examine these relationships.

In Chapter 4, I conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical contributions, limitations, and future directions for the current work. Overall, this research highlights the importance and utility of considering prototypicality at both the categorical and underlying attribute level to better understand when intersectional advantages versus disadvantages may emerge.

This study examined changes in African American adolescents' racial identity content (e.g., connectedness, awareness of racism, and embedded achievement) and academic adjustment (e.g., Academic and disciplinary adjustment, perceptions of school and teachers, and relationship with school peers) between early and late adolescence. Data analyzed were from a subsample of youth (N = 514) who participated in the multi-site Fast Track Project designed to prevent problem behaviors (e.g., disruptive, aggressive, and antisocial behavior). Results from latent growth curve models suggest that connectedness and embedded achievement remain stable across adolescence. However, awareness of racism increases from early to late adolescence and this increase is linked to declining self reported relationships with school peers. These findings also indicate that the relationship between racial identity and academic adjustment is moderated by gender. For girls, awareness of racism predicted negative peer relationships in early adolescence, but not across the study years. For boys, increasing awareness of racism predicted declines in peer relationships across adolescence. The present findings contribute to the understanding of adolescent racial identity content change.

Black females experience disparate rates of hypertension and earlier decline in cardiovascular health (CVH) than other females in the U.S. To date, much of research has focused on health behaviors, but more research is needed to understand how adversities early in life and in the social environment may contribute to premature decline in CVH among young Black women. Studies show that early life stress in the form of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), like family dysfunction and child maltreatment, are reported in higher numbers by women, and historically minoritized populations, and experiencing four or more adversities in childhood may independently double the odds of CVD. In addition, social adversities like racial discrimination, housing insecurity, and social isolation in young adulthood may also contribute to inequities in CVH. Many health behaviors, such as cigarette use and dietary intake, are used as a stress coping measure, further highlighting the importance of understanding the stressors and adversities that are commonly experienced by young adult Black women. However, much of research has focused on CVD as a disease of middle and older adults, but less is known about the CVH of young adult Black women.

Young adulthood is an important developmental period when women are busy launching careers, and establishing social roles such as intimate partnerships and parenting, and forming new health behavior patterns to accommodate these changes. Per the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis, stress, adversity, and health behaviors in young adulthood not only affect the individual, but also that of future generations. Improving the CVH of young adult Black women is essential to reducing and eliminating health inequities, and requires an appreciation of the heterogeneity among Black women, and the use of innovative approaches to identify subgroups of women who are doing well.

This dissertation includes a systematic review of the published literature on ACEs and blood pressure among women in the United States, and a secondary analysis of The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine how adverse childhood and social experiences relate to the cardiovascular health (CVH) health of young adult Black women. The systematic search of three databases identified 1,640 articles, and ten met all established inclusion criteria. In our review ACEs were positively associated with blood pressure in six of the ten articles reviewed. The inconsistency in results may be related to self-report vs objective assessment of blood pressure. Racial and ethnic diversity was limited, with half of the articles consisting of samples that were majority White. Future research should incorporate diverse, population representative samples, with consideration for sex-or-race specific stressors, such as racism, and its potential impact on blood pressure and CVH.

Data presented in the remaining three chapters of the dissertation study are an observational, cross-sectional analysis of data from Black females, ages 24-32 who participated in the Add Health study at wave four. The first data based chapter examines if social adversities and sleep characteristics are indicators of increased risk of hypertension among young adult Black women. Of the five social adversities (social isolation, discrimination, high perceived stress, low subjective social status, child abuse) and four sleep characteristics examined (delayed sleep onset, poor sleep continuity, short sleep, long sleep, and snoring), only discrimination and poor sleep continuity were positively associated with higher odds of hypertension, adjusting for age and BMI. Since social adversities often co-exist, the next chapter examined patterns or latent classes of social adversity. Three latent classes were identified: (1) low stress, (2) high violence, and (3) high stress. In analyses adjusted for age, income, education and depression, the subclasses of social adversity were related to diet, and physical activity, but were not related to overall ideal CVH. Whereas chapters 3 and 4 both focused on stressors in young adulthood as predictors of CVH, chapter 5 added an additional life course perspective by considering the impact of adverse childhood experiences on CVH. This chapter also sought to advance the literature by examining the maternal relationship and religion and spirituality in adolescence and young adulthood as potential protective factors that may buffer the stress of childhood adversity. The results in chapter five suggest that a strong religious and spiritual connection in adolescence or young adulthood may promote CVH among young Black women, but it’s impact on CVH is diminished after taking into account other factors such as severity of ACEs, socioeconomic status, and mental health. The second proposed protective factor, maternal relationship, did not have a significant direct influence on CVH.

This study may be the first to explore CVH in a within-group, population-representative sample of young adult Black women in the United States. The present findings suggest there are critical differences in how social contributors influence health, and in fact, many of the social constructs measured had little influence on health. This suggests that the factors measured may not accurately reflect the underlying construct for different subpopulations. Moreover, there may be other social factors that are not well captured in existing scientific research that likely are impacting the health of Black women and need to be explored, to advance the American Heart Association’s goal of equitable improvements in CVH.