Microaggressions Among Israeli Adolescents

Background and Purpose:  Microaggressions refer to the subtle, ambiguous, and pervasive experiences of discrimination that, while potentially fleeting on their own, can be detrimental in their accumulation. To date, the majority of research on microaggressions has been limited to the United States and no known microaggression research exists in Israel. This is concerning given the increasing heterogeneity of Israeli society, the need to confront subsequent discrimination, and research that finds perceived discrimination to be associated with negative outcomes in minority populations.  This study thus seeks to understand how perceptions of discrimination are associated with experiences of microaggressions amongst a sample of adolescents in Israel.

Methods:  In March 2014, a study exploring risk and resiliency factors was conducted in Israel.  A bilingual, self-administered questionnaire was distributed to high school students across the country.  An adaptation of the structured 22-item Racial Microaggressions Scale (RMAS) was included.  Perceived discrimination was evaluated in association with: microaggressions, mental health status (assessed by the K6 scale), socioeconomic status, sex, ethnicity, and national identity. Factor analysis was used to distinguish underlying microaggression dimensions; multiple regression to consider the relationship between perceived discrimination, mental health status, microaggression dimensions, and demographic factors.  

Results: 179 students completed the RMAS questionnaire.  Students of self-identified Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, Arab and Palestinian backgrounds were well represented (16.8% to 23.5% of the sample), yet students of Russian, Ethiopian, Bedouin, and Druze backgrounds were under- or not-represented. Students were predominantly from homogeneous communities.  Overall, microaggression endorsement was low (Mean = 34.4 out of 88, SD = 10.2). Of the five microaggression dimensions identified, students most frequently endorsed the dimension of Overly Homogenized Ethnicity (Mean = 4.29 out of 8, SD = 1.9); followed by Disadvantaged Ethnicity (Mean = 5.86 out of 12, SD = 2.9), Overly Criminalized Ethnicity (Mean = 11.95 out of 32, SD = 5.0), Invisible or Misrepresented Ethnicity (Mean = 6.55 out of 20, SD = 2.8), and Devalued Ethnicity (Mean = 2.36 out of 8, SD = 1.0). In the multivariate model, only the dimension of being Invisible or Misrepresented was significantly associated with perceived discrimination (b = .174, p = 000). Arab ethnicity and higher K6 mental health scores were also significant predictors of perceived discrimination—Arab ethnicity was associated with lower perceptions (b = -.404, p = .05), and more psychological distress was associated with higher perceptions (b = .026, p = .016).  

Conclusions and Implications: These findings provide insight into the types of experiences that may be targeted in order to abate discrimination amongst Israeli adolescents; they also suggest that some microaggressive experiences may be occurring in Israel but adolescents do not perceive them as discriminatory.  Potential mitigating factors seem to involve mental health status, ethnicity, and exposure to heterogeneity in day-to-day life.  These factors, including the potential protective function of Arab ethnicity and an expansion of the study sample to include more under-represented groups, should be the focus of expanded research to improve intergroup experiences and general wellbeing in the country.