Bystander or Ally?: Predictors of Adolescent Behavior in Response to Microaggressions on Social Media
摘要
Microaggressions are conscious or unconscious slights targeting people holding marginalized identities, and literature has outlined several negative consequences for adolescents who are exposed (e.g., anxiety, depression, and sleep difficulties). Adolescents experience race- and sexuality-based microaggressions, although little is known about how they respond to these encounters. Further, limited studies highlight adolescents’ responses to these transgressions when enacted online, although there is evidence that they experience identity-based online victimization. Using a cross-sectional research design, we administered a survey to expose 134 adolescents to four race- and sexuality-based microaggressive social media posts in random order. Given the extant literature, we hypothesized that social media rumination, knowledge of school policy, perceptions of school connectedness, and feelings of offensiveness would significantly predict participants’ report that they would intervene after viewing each microaggressive post targeting a peer on social media. Results indicated that among the four predictor variables, participants’ feelings of offensiveness explained most of the variance in their choice to intervene after the post. Some participants who endorsed that they would intervene also provided qualitative data to elaborate on what they might say or do. These results and implications for future research and practice are discussed.