Page 125 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

The Effects of Microaggressive Stress 99

in the form of insults and invalidations have strong detrimental effects (Sue,
Capodilupo, & Holder, 2008). Evidence suggests that microaggressive stressors
can be implicated in the manifestation of mental disorders such as depression
and anxiety.
Most microaggressions involve interpersonal interactions between per-
petrator and target. It has been demonstrated that stressors, especially inter-
personal ones, are strongly related to various forms of depression (Hammen,
2006). Four characteristics of stressors are especially important in facilitating
depression. The disorder is more likely to occur when stressors (1) are severe
in nature ( severity ), (2) are chronic rather than acute ( chronicity ), (3) where the
onset is early ( onset ), and (4) when they involve loss or humiliation as opposed
to dangerous events or threat ( type of stressor ) (Brown & Harris, 1989; Lara,
Klein, & Kasch, 2000; McGonagle & Kessler, 1990). Microaggressions fi t these
criteria in that they are continuing and cumulative, begin from the moment of
birth, and assail a person ’ s integrity, producing humiliation. While any one
act may not be severe in nature, we have already seen how historical trauma
and multiple microaggressions can summate into a powerful force.
Homophobia for LGBTs, for example, is a lifelong reality that interferes with
identity development and healthy self - concept (Frost & Meyer, 2009; Herek,
2004). A heterosexist social environment produces an intrapsychic confl ict
between attractions to same-sex persons and being forced to alter one ’ s desires
for heterosexual partners. An inhospitable environment or climate to LGBTs

produces “ minority stress, ” a term used to describe specific sexual - orientation
stressors that involve antigay stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination (Meyer,
Schwartz, & Frost, 2008). It has been proposed that internalized homophobia is
the most insidious and damaging form of minority stressors that are the result
of a heterosexist climate for LGBTs. The relationship between increased depres-
sion and low feelings of subjective well - being is well documented in the
literature (Croteau, Lark, & Lance, 2005; Igartua, Gill, & Montoro, 2003; Meyer,
1995; Szymanski, 2009).
Much has also been written about the relationship of gender to depression.
Depression is far more common among women than men regardless of race,
social class, and region in the world (Strickland, 1992); major depressions (not
bipolar) are twice as high as those for men in the United States (Kessler, 2003).
Some believe these findings are artifi cially inflated due to the greater likelihood

of women seeking treatment, their greater willingness to report depression to
other people, hormonal differences, and gender bias in the diagnostic system
(Ricker & Bird, 2005; Goldberg, 2006). While these explanations hold some

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