Confronting Whiteness in Developmental Science: Disrupting the Intergenerational Transmission of White Racism.

This special section situates White racial socialization (WRS) in its rightful place-in the context of White supremacy. The first article offers a conceptual framework to guide research on White adolescents' racial identity development in this context. The second employs a critical ethnographic approach to explore White racial identity development among incarcerated White adolescents. Additional studies use qualitative, observational, and mixed methods to understand WRS practices in White families. The final article presents a conceptual model of digital WRS. Authors provide recommendations for future research, such as engaging in critical researcher self-reflexivity and focusing on content of racial socialization messages. Two commentaries highlight cross-cutting themes and urge developmental scientists to view this special section as a call to action.

Walking out on hate: A qualitative investigation of how and why White supremacists quit hate groups.

Through in-depth, semistructured interviews with former White supremacists (N = 9), the authors explored how and why former White supremacists left their hate groups, and why some chose to then speak out against their former racist ideologies. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA; Smith et al., 2009), the authors identified nine themes related to the process of leaving one's hate group and becoming an antihate activist. Participants initially left their hate groups because of both painful and encouraging interactions with members of marginalized communities, which led to the disintegration of their White supremacist ideological convictions. Upon exiting, participants navigated threats to their safety, experienced shifts in their social networks, encountered new emotional states, and healed through introspection and connection with others. Finally, participants connected with former White supremacists who had become antihate activists, spoke out publicly against hate, and developed antihate activist identities. The authors offer directions for future research, as well as provide implications for clinical interventions supporting hate group members through their exit processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

"I have strong medicine, you see": Strategic responses to racial microaggressions.

In this qualitative study, the authors examined responses to racial microaggressions among community members in Montreal, Canada. To this end, using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA; Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009) we conducted individual interviews with Black Canadian (n = 5) and Indigenous (n = 5) community members who pursued employment directly after secondary education. Seven themes emerged from the data (e.g., calling out perpetrators, empowering self and others, choosing to not engage, and using humor). Response strategies convey 4 primary features: (a) importance of social support in accessing resources and confronting racial microaggressions, (b) use of culturally grounded strategies as a form of resistance, (c) multifaceted use of humor to confront and to minimize racial microaggressions, and (d) intentional use of avoidance among women participants. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

A dyadic study of multicultural counseling competence.

Using the Kenny, Kashy, and Cook (2006) one-with-many method, we investigated client and counselor reports of counselors' level of multicultural counseling competence (MCC) across 4 therapy sessions at a university counseling center. Specifically, we analyzed the association between counselor MCC and client psychological well-being among 133 clients of color receiving psychotherapy from 24 counselors. We found that both client and counselor perspectives suggested that some counselors possessed generally higher MCC than others. Counselors' self-assessments of MCC, however, did not relate with their clients' assessments of counselor MCC-replicating findings from past studies of MCC. On average, counselors whose clients generally perceived them as more multiculturally competent did not report improved psychological well-being at the fourth session. Likewise, counselors who generally reported more MCC did not have clients who improved more in psychological well-being than would be expected over 4 sessions. Notably, at the dyad-level, clients who rated their counselor more highly on MCC than their counselors' other clients tended to report greater improvement in well-being. Suggestions for future MCC research involving dyadic analytic designs are described. (PsycINFO Database Record

Changes in White college students' color-blind racial ideology over 4 years: do diversity experiences make a difference?

In this longitudinal study, we explored how White students' (N = 857) color-blind racial ideology (CBRI; i.e., beliefs that serve to deny, minimize, and/or distort the existence of racism) changed over time and the factors associated with these patterns of change. Specifically, we investigated whether gender, diversity attitudes (i.e., openness to diversity and interest in social issues), and college diversity experiences (i.e., diversity-related courses/activities and close interracial friendships) predicted patterns of CBRI change. Findings indicated that gender and diversity attitudes were related to initial levels of CBRI, such that women and students who were more open to diversity issues at the beginning of college were more likely to report lower levels of CBRI; gender was also related to a greater decrease in CBRI changes over the college experience. Furthermore, college diversity experiences predicted changes in CBRI over time, such that students who completed a greater number of diversity courses and activities and those who had a greater number of close Black friends showed a significantly greater decrease in CBRI over their 4 years in college; interestingly, students who reported having no Latino friends compared with having some close Latino friends showed a significantly greater decrease in CBRI over time.

Excluded and avoided: racial microaggressions targeting Asian international students in Canada.

This qualitative study explored East and South Asian international students' (N = 12) experiences with racial microaggressions at one Canadian university. Data were collected through unstructured, individual interviews. Using a modified version of the consensual qualitative research method (Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997), we identified six racial microaggressions themes: (a) excluded and avoided, (b) ridiculed for accent, (c) rendered invisible, (d) disregarded international values and needs, (e) ascription of intelligence, and (f) environmental microaggressions (structural barriers on campus). In addition, we used the same approach to identify themes pertaining to the ways in which students coped with racial microaggressions: (a) engaging with own racial and cultural groups, (b) withdrawing from academic spheres, and (c) seeking comfort in the surrounding multicultural milieu. Microaggressions and coping themes differed based on country of origin and language proficiency. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Counseling psychology trainees' perceptions of training and commitments to social justice.

This mixed methods study examined social justice commitments of counseling psychology graduate trainees. In the quantitative portion of the study, a national sample of trainees (n = 260) completed a web-based survey assessing their commitments to social justice and related personal and training variables. Results suggested that students desired greater social justice training than what they experienced in their programs. In the qualitative portion, we used a phenomenological approach to expand and elaborate upon quantitative results. A subsample (n = 7) of trainees who identified as strong social justice activists were interviewed regarding their personal, professional, and training experiences. Eleven themes related to participants' meanings of and experiences with social justice emerged within 4 broad categories: nature of social justice, motivation for activism, role of training, and personal and professional integration. Thematic findings as well as descriptive statistics informed the selection and ordering of variables in a hierarchical regression analysis that examined predictors of social justice commitment. Results indicated that trainees' perceptions of training environment significantly predicted their social justice commitment over and above their general activist orientation and spirituality. Findings are discussed collectively, and implications for training and future research are provided.

Modern racism attitudes among white students: the role of dominance and authoritarianism and the mediating effects of racial color-blindness.

Among 342 white college students, we examined the effects of social dominance orientation (SDO), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and racial color-blindness on modern racism attitudes. Structural equation modeling was used to test the indirect effects of SDO and RWA on modern racism attitudes through color-blind racial attitudes. We found strong indirect effects of SDO and RWA on modern racism through racial color-blindness. We did not find support for an alternative model, in which we tested racial color-blindness as a moderator of the effects of SDO and RWA on modern racism. Findings suggest that highly dominant and authoritarian white students endorse color-blind racial attitudes, although likely for different reasons. In turn, this predicts their modern racism attitudes. These findings indicate racial color-blindness is important to address as part of anti-racism education.

Effects of a brief video intervention on White university students' racial attitudes.

The authors investigated the effects of a brief video intervention on the racial attitudes of White university students. One hundred thirty-eight self-identified White students were randomly assigned to either an experimental condition in which they viewed a video documenting the pervasiveness of institutional racism and White privilege in the United States or a neutral control condition. Findings offer preliminary support that participants in the experimental, but not the control, condition showed significant increases in racial awareness (i.e., decrease in racial color-blindness), White empathy, and White guilt, at posttest. However, no significant differences in racial prejudice or White fear of racial minorities were observed at posttest. Implications for multicultural counseling training, diversity programming, and future research are discussed.

Longitudinal examination of the psychosocial costs of racism to Whites across the college experience.

This longitudinal investigation adds to the growing body of scholarship on the psychosocial costs of racism to Whites, which refer to the consequences of being in the dominant position in an unjust, hierarchical system of societal racism. We examined how White students' affective costs of racism (i.e., White empathy, guilt, and fear) changed across the college experience and how gender, colorblind racial ideology, and diversity experiences were associated with those costs. Findings indicated that White empathy, guilt, and fear each had a distinct trajectory of change across the college experience. Moreover, patterns of change for each cost were moderated by colorblind racial attitude scores at college entrance. We also found that participation in college diversity experiences (e.g., diversity courses) was associated with the costs; moreover, different types of diversity experiences were linked to particular costs. These findings provide insight into the affective experiences of White students across college and thus may be useful to counseling psychologists and educators who design and implement programs and policies to enhance diversity education.

Reviewing Racial Microaggressions Research: Documenting Targets' Experiences, Harmful Sequelae, and Resistance Strategies.

In this article, we review the theoretical and empirical literature on racial microaggressions from 2007 to 2020 (N = 138 articles). First, we refine racial microaggressions theory and update the definition to address mischaracterizations in the literature and clarify the term (i.e., "micro" refers to microlevel interactions rather than degree of harm). Next, we used four superordinate categories (i.e., pathologizing differences, denigrating and pigeonholing, excluding or rendering invisible, and perpetuating color-blind racial attitudes) in which to situate racial microaggression themes from the extant literature. Moreover, we consolidated and renamed existing themes to privilege targets' perspectives (e.g., facing assumptions of inferior status and enduring exoticization). We then synthesized qualitative and quantitative research that shows harmful sequelae of racial microaggressions (i.e., psychological and physiological symptoms). Extending prior research on coping with gendered racial microaggressions, we describe empirical findings on collective, resistance, and self-protective strategies to mitigate the harmful impact of racial microaggressions. We conclude with directions for future research.

"School Shouldn't Be Something You Have to Survive": Queer Women's Experiences with Microaggressions at a Canadian University.

The authors used an interpretative phenomenological analysis of focus-group data provided by eight research participants to investigate microaggressions that target queer women at an urban Canadian university. Four themes emerged from the data that support and extend prior sexual orientation microaggressions typologies research: (a) facing skepticism as response to sexual orientation, (b) living with surveillance as response to gender presentation, (c) encountering heteronormative assumptions, and (d) experiencing vulnerability. The authors discuss these findings in the context of previous research, outline future research directions, and provide implications for campus life.

Psychosocial costs of racism to Whites: Understanding patterns among university students.

This investigation adds to the growing body of scholarship on the psychosocial costs of racism to Whites (PCRW), which refer to consequences of being in the dominant position in an unjust, hierarchical system of societal racism. Extending research that identified 5 distinct constellations of costs of racism (L. B. Spanierman, V. P. Poteat, A. M. Beer, & P. I. Armstrong, 2006), the authors used multinomial logistic regression in the current study to examine what factors related to membership in 1 of the 5 PCRW types during the course of an academic year. Among a sample of White university freshmen (n = 287), the authors found that (a) diversity attitudes (i.e., universal diverse orientation and unawareness of privilege) explained PCRW type at entrance, (b) PCRW type at entrance explained participation in interracial friendships at the end of the year, (c) 45% of participants changed PCRW type during the course of the year, and (d) among those who changed type, particular PCRW types at entrance resulted in greater likelihood of membership in particular PCRW types at the end of the year. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Neuropsychological functioning of combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder and mild traumatic brain injury.

This study examined the neuropsychological performance of 125 outpatient Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and nonacute mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) (n = 66) and PTSD (n = 59) across multiple cognitive domains to determine whether mild TBI results in greater impairment among those with PTSD. Profile analyses revealed that veterans with PTSD and mild TBI did not differ significantly from those with just PTSD across domains, suggesting that comorbid mild TBI does not result in an additive effect. A norms-based comparison also revealed that neither group demonstrated impaired performance on any of the objective neuropsychological measures examined. However, both groups endorsed moderately elevated symptoms of depression and anxiety, indicating that comorbid psychopathology may contribute to subjective cognitive complaints.

White Students Reflecting on Whiteness: Understanding Emotional Responses.

In the present investigation, the authors explored potential predictors of White students' general emotional responses after they reflected on their Whiteness in a semi-structured interview (n = 88) or written reflection (n = 187). Specifically, the authors examined how color-blindness (i.e., awareness of White privilege) and racial affect (i.e., White empathy, White guilt, and White fear), assessed before the interview or written reflection, may predict positive and negative emotional responses, assessed immediately following the interview or written reflection. Furthermore, the authors considered whether affective costs of racism to Whites moderated the association between racial color-blindness and general positive and negative emotional responses of White students. Findings indicated that affective costs of racism moderated associations between racial color-blindness and general emotional responses. Specifically, White fear moderated associations for the written reflection group whereas White empathy moderated an association in the interview. White guilt did not moderate, but instead directly predicted a negative emotional response in the written reflection group. Findings suggest that the interaction between racial color-blindness and racial affect is important when predicting students' emotional responses to reflecting on their Whiteness. Implications for educators and administrators are discussed.