Abstract
We studied the qualitative experiences of racism that first-year students reported prior to and during their first year of college. Participants included 134 first-year students (26.9% Asian, 32.1% Black/African American, 20.9% Multiracial, 20.0% Hispanic/Latino; 53.0% female; 21.6% LGBTQ+) who attended a medium-sized, predominately/historically White university in the American Southeast. Students answered open-ended questions about their lived experiences. We used deductive and inductive thematic analysis to analyze their experiences. Results confirmed that students commonly experienced microassaults (58.4%), microinsults (40.8%), microinvalidations (17.6%), and environmental microaggressions (51.2%). Most occurred in adolescence (75.2%). The majority (72.8%) indicated they had experiences where national (or international or local) recognition of race-based attacks impacted how they viewed society. Experiences of racial violence/aggression/threat were also prevalent (16.8%). Coping responses (e.g., talking with friends/family, 35.2%) were often reported. Results highlight that experiences of racism continue to be common and impactful to the daily lives of BIPOC emerging adults.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
