Experiencing racial microagressions influences suicide ideation through perceived burdensomeness in African Americans / David W. Hollingsworth, Ashley B. Cole, Victoria M. O' Keefe, Raymond P. Tucker, Chandra R. Story, LaRicka R. Wingate

Racial microagressions are a contemporay form of subtle discrimination that occur in everyday exchanges, and are associated with the variety of mental health outcomes, icluding suicide idation. Previous work (Torres-Harding, Andrade, and Romero Diaz, 2012) has identified 6 dimensions of racial microaggressions: invisibility, criminality, low achieving/undesirable culture, sexualization, foregner/not belonging, and environmental invalidations. The current study examined wether the 6 dimensions of racial microaggressions were associated with increased suicide ideation through perceive burdensomeness and thwarted belonging among 135 African American young adults. Results indicated that perceive burdensomeness, but not thwarted belongingness, mediated the relationship between 3 racial microaggression dimensions (i.e. invisibility, low-achievement/undesirable culture, and environmental invalidations) and suicide ideation. These results imply that for African American college students, experiencing certain dimensions of racial microaggressions was associated with higher levels of perceived burdensomeness, which in turn was related to increase levels of suicide ideation. Clinical and societal implications are discussed. This study found that specific types of racial microaggressions were associated with higher levels of perceptions of being a burden on others, which in turn was associated with higher levels of suicide ideation in a sample of African Americans. These findings are important as they demonstrate 1 possible avenue through which racial microaggressions can negatively impact mental health.

Psychology