Online Microaggressions Linked to Poor Sleep Quality for Black Women

A new study shows that microaggressions targeted at Black women online appear to be detrimental to the health of other Black women who witness the microaggressions, even when the microaggressions are not directed at them personally. Researchers specifically found that encountering indirect microaggressions was associated with poorer sleep quality for young Black women.

The paper, “Online and Offline Gendered Racial Microaggressions and Sleep Quality for Black Women“, as published in the magazine Health Psychology.

“Many people mistakenly view microaggressions as some kind of joke, but they are serious and have serious consequences,” said Vanessa Volpe, lead author of a paper on the study and an associate professor of psychology at North Carolina State University.

Microaggressions are often subtle examples of abusive or insulting behavior that usually revolve around negative stereotypes. But while microaggressions are often subtle, they also add up over time.

“And because people, including Black women, often face a constant stream of these kinds of microaggressions, there is a tremendous amount of evidence that shows that these microaggressions can have a serious impact on people’s health and well-being,” Volpe said.

“We started this study to learn more about the extent to which Black women experience microaggressions online and offline, and how these microaggressions might relate to the quality of their sleep. We focused on the quality of their sleep because it is a health outcome in its own right, and is also known to be a behavior that can be affected by stress.”

For this study, researchers recruited 478 Black women between the ages of 18 and 35 living in the United States. Study participants completed a detailed survey designed to capture how often they experienced microaggressions related to their race and gender, both in face-to-face interactions and online.

For online microaggressions, the survey distinguished between microaggressions directed at the study participant and indirect microaggressions, where the study participant observed microaggressions that were not specifically directed at him or her. The survey also included a series of questions aimed at understanding the sleep quality of each study participant.

Online microaggressions directed at the study participants were the least frequently reported. According to the researchers, this is related to the ability of social media users to control their online experience. For example, they can choose which accounts to follow, block accounts they don’t want to see, and so on.

“To be clear, the Black women in our study still experienced direct online microaggressions, they just experienced these microaggressions less often than other microaggressions,” Volpe said.

Microaggressions that occur in real life came in second. Microaggressions that occur online were the most common.

Microaggressions occurring in real life were associated with lower sleep quality scores. However, only indirect microaggressions occurring online were uniquely associated with increased odds of clinically relevant poor sleep quality.

“Study participants were asked how often they were exposed to indirect online microaggressions, and they responded on a scale of 0-5,” Volpe explains. “We found that for every one unit you go up on that 0-5 scale, the odds of clinically relevant poor sleep quality increase by 33%.

“The fact that indirect microaggressions online can negatively impact Black women seems especially relevant this election year, as the first Black woman has run for president of a major political party.”

The findings have implications for both healthcare providers and researchers.

“A key message is that healthcare professionals working with individuals experiencing sleep problems should ask about stress experiences that may be specific to gender and race, including stress related to their online experiences,” Volpe says. “They should work with their patients to develop stress management plans and solutions that take into account these unique experiences and their patients’ online engagement.”

“Furthermore, it’s a bit surprising that indirect microaggressions seem to have a greater impact on sleep quality than microaggressions aimed directly at you. That suggests that the research community should take a closer look at indirect microaggressions.”

The article was co-authored by Abbey Collins, a PhD candidate at NC State; Eric Zhou of Harvard Medical School; Donte Bernard of the University of Missouri; and Naila Smith of the University of Virginia.