Media use is a meaningful occupation for adolescents. Black adolescents may be at risk for exposure to racial microaggressions through engagement in this occupation. Racial microaggressions are subtle forms of discrimination that negatively impact health. This study aimed to examine the impact of exposure to racial media microaggressions on mental and behavioral health outcomes among Black adolescents. A 14-day daily diary protocol was used to administer measures on racial media microaggressions, depression, anxiety, aggression, and cannabis use. Neither concurrent nor lagged-day associations between racial media microaggressions and symptoms of anxiety, depression, or cannabis use were significant. The concurrent effect of racial media microaggressions on aggression was non-significant, but the next-day lagged effect of racial media microaggressions on aggression at both the within- (estimate = 0.610, SE = 0.281, t = 2.170, p = .030) and between-person (estimate = −.364, SE = 0.182, t = −2.004, p = .046) levels was statistically significant. Findings indicated that exposure to racial media microaggressions impacted Black adolescent behavioral health.
Plain Language Summary
Understanding The Impact of Racial Microaggressions in the Media on Black Adolescent Mental and Behavioral Health
Media use is a meaningful occupation for adolescents. Media use includes activities such as watching online videos; watching television; and reading books, e-books, magazines, or online articles. It is important to understand how media use may impact health, especially among marginalized groups who may experience discrimination, because of their race, through the media. This study explored whether exposure to racial media microaggressions, a subtle form of racial discrimination, impacted mental health and behavioral health (depression, anxiety, aggression, cannabis use) among a group of Black adolescents. We found that on days when participants experienced more racial media microaggressions than usual for themselves, they experienced an increase in aggression the next day. In contrast, those youth who experienced more racial microaggressions compared with the other youth in the study had lower aggression the following day. We discuss how occupational therapy practitioners can consider these findings in research and practice.
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