U.S. laws, policies, and practices have been implemented to reduce forms of overt racism and discrimination. These structural barriers have been effective (e.g., Dovido & Gaertner, 2000; McConahay, 1986; Sue & Sue, 2007). Covert forms of racism, however, including racial microaggressions, are more difficult to address using structural changes and, therefore, continue to thrive (Omi & Winant 1994; Sue et al., 2007). Racist attitudes and discriminatory behaviors are sources of anxiety and stress (Kogan et al., 2014; Pascoe & Richman, 2009) with long-term anxiety and stress leading to elevated risks for mental and physical illnesses, including obesity (Bose et al., 2009; Williams, 2018) that puts individuals at risk for other preventable chronic diseases (Phelan & Link, 2015). Unhealthy dietary choices, as well, are linked to suppression of emotion following stressful events (Leow et al., 2018; Gibson, 2006; Evers et al., 2010). What is not known is whether covert forms of racism and discrimination, particularly experiencing or even just witnessing racial microaggressions, impact dietary choices, and whether healthy versus unhealthy emotion regulation techniques mitigate the impact on dietary choices. Findings from this study indicated that instructions to engage in perseverative thinking compared to expressive writing about a racial microaggression resulted in the consumption of more food by the thinking group. Emotional eating, but not cognitive reappraisal or emotion suppression, interacted with condition such that those who scored higher on emotional eating and who were in the thinking group ate substantially more than other groups.
","abstract_html":"<p>U.S. laws, policies, and practices have been implemented to reduce forms of overt racism and discrimination. These structural barriers have been effective (e.g., <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4762607/#R22">Dovido & Gaertner, 2000</a>; <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4762607/#R55">McConahay, 1986</a>; <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4762607/#R103">Sue & Sue, 2007</a>). Covert forms of racism, however, including racial microaggressions, are more difficult to address using structural changes and, therefore, continue to thrive (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4762607/#R72">Omi & Winant 1994</a>; <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4762607/#R95">Sue et al., 2007</a><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4762607/#R96">)</a>. Racist attitudes and discriminatory behaviors are sources of anxiety and stress (Kogan et al., 2014; Pascoe & Richman, 2009) with long-term anxiety and stress leading to elevated risks for mental and physical illnesses, including obesity (Bose et al., 2009; Williams, 2018) that puts individuals at risk for other preventable chronic diseases (Phelan & Link, 2015). Unhealthy dietary choices, as well, are linked to suppression of emotion following stressful events (Leow et al., 2018; Gibson, 2006; Evers et al., 2010). What is not known is whether covert forms of racism and discrimination, particularly experiencing or even just witnessing racial microaggressions, impact dietary choices, and whether healthy versus unhealthy emotion regulation techniques mitigate the impact on dietary choices. Findings from this study indicated that instructions to engage in perseverative thinking compared to expressive writing about a racial microaggression resulted in the consumption of more food by the thinking group. Emotional eating, but not cognitive reappraisal or emotion suppression, interacted with condition such that those who scored higher on emotional eating and who were in the thinking group ate substantially more than other groups.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Akter, Khadiza"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Tammy Greer","Jennifer Lemacks","Donald Sacco"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2025-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:55Z","subjects":["Microaggressions","Emotional Eating","Emotion Regulation","Health Psychology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1136","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Tammy Greer","Jennifer Lemacks","Donald Sacco"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Akter, Khadiza"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2025-08-31T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Microaggressions","Emotional Eating","Emotion Regulation","Health Psychology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1136"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["U.S. laws, policies, and practices have been implemented to reduce forms of overt racism and discrimination. These structural barriers have been effective (e.g., Dovido & Gaertner, 2000; McConahay, 1986; Sue & Sue, 2007). Covert forms of racism, however, including racial microaggressions, are more difficult to address using structural changes and, therefore, continue to thrive (Omi & Winant 1994; Sue et al., 2007). Racist attitudes and discriminatory behaviors are sources of anxiety and stress (Kogan et al., 2014; Pascoe & Richman, 2009) with long-term anxiety and stress leading to elevated risks for mental and physical illnesses, including obesity (Bose et al., 2009; Williams, 2018) that puts individuals at risk for other preventable chronic diseases (Phelan & Link, 2015). Unhealthy dietary choices, as well, are linked to suppression of emotion following stressful events (Leow et al., 2018; Gibson, 2006; Evers et al., 2010). What is not known is whether covert forms of racism and discrimination, particularly experiencing or even just witnessing racial microaggressions, impact dietary choices, and whether healthy versus unhealthy emotion regulation techniques mitigate the impact on dietary choices. Findings from this study indicated that instructions to engage in perseverative thinking compared to expressive writing about a racial microaggression resulted in the consumption of more food by the thinking group. Emotional eating, but not cognitive reappraisal or emotion suppression, interacted with condition such that those who scored higher on emotional eating and who were in the thinking group ate substantially more than other groups.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Reflecting on Racial Microaggressions: The Impact on Food Consumption in Minority Women"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Tammy Greer","Jennifer Lemacks","Donald Sacco"],"dc:creator":["Akter, Khadiza"],"dc:date.available":["2025-08-31T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["U.S. laws, policies, and practices have been implemented to reduce forms of overt racism and discrimination. These structural barriers have been effective (e.g., Dovido & Gaertner, 2000; McConahay, 1986; Sue & Sue, 2007). Covert forms of racism, however, including racial microaggressions, are more difficult to address using structural changes and, therefore, continue to thrive (Omi & Winant 1994; Sue et al., 2007). Racist attitudes and discriminatory behaviors are sources of anxiety and stress (Kogan et al., 2014; Pascoe & Richman, 2009) with long-term anxiety and stress leading to elevated risks for mental and physical illnesses, including obesity (Bose et al., 2009; Williams, 2018) that puts individuals at risk for other preventable chronic diseases (Phelan & Link, 2015). Unhealthy dietary choices, as well, are linked to suppression of emotion following stressful events (Leow et al., 2018; Gibson, 2006; Evers et al., 2010). What is not known is whether covert forms of racism and discrimination, particularly experiencing or even just witnessing racial microaggressions, impact dietary choices, and whether healthy versus unhealthy emotion regulation techniques mitigate the impact on dietary choices. Findings from this study indicated that instructions to engage in perseverative thinking compared to expressive writing about a racial microaggression resulted in the consumption of more food by the thinking group. Emotional eating, but not cognitive reappraisal or emotion suppression, interacted with condition such that those who scored higher on emotional eating and who were in the thinking group ate substantially more than other groups.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1136"],"dc:subject":["Microaggressions","Emotional Eating","Emotion Regulation","Health Psychology"],"dc:title":["Reflecting on Racial Microaggressions: The Impact on Food Consumption in Minority Women"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:55Z"}