Microaggression Experience on Social Distance Towards Older Adults: Hostility As a Mediator Among South Korean Queer Youths

Background and Purpose: Microaggressions against sexual and gender minorities are pervasive in society, particularly within the framework of East Asian cultural norms. It imposes a stressful and oppressive environment for LGBTQ+ individuals, with adverse psychological consequences, including increased hostility, and negative interpersonal implications, such as social withdrawal from mainstream societal structures. Whether this social resistance to dominant groups applies to their willingness to socially engage with other vulnerable groups, namely the aging population, is unknown. This study targets South Korean queer youths and aims to examine the relationship between their microaggression experience and their social distance towards older adults, exploring the role of hostility in this association.

Methods: This study collected cross-sectional data from 320 Korean queer youths aged 20-30s. Social distance towards older adults (SDOA) was examined using a shortened version of Emory Bogardus’s Social Distance Scale, while microaggression (Cronbach’s α=.97) was measured using a modified version of the Likert 6-point scale tailored to the context of Korean queer individuals. Furthermore, for hostility (Cronbach’s α=.83), a Likert 5-point hostility subscale from the Korean version of the aggression questionnaire was used. Control variables included gender identity, sexual orientation, employment status, residential area, level of education, monthly average personal income, and subjective health status. The mediation effect was analyzed utilizing SPSS version 29, PROCESS Macro 4.2, with indirect effects assessed with 5,000 bootstrap samples and significance set at p<.05.

Results: Participants were predominantly in their twenties (66.9%), homosexual (54.4%), university graduates (55.6%), and employed (67.2%). Correlational analysis indicated that microaggression (M=62.38, SD=26.86) and hostility (M=23.11, SD=6.59) all showed significant associations (p<.01) with SDOA (M=2.64, SD=0.88). In addition, microaggression had a significant total effect on SDOA (B=-.006, 95% CI [-.009, -.168]), followed by statistically significant pathways from microaggression to hostility (B=.075, 95% CI [.049, .100]) and hostility to SDOA (B=.020, 95% CI [.005, .036]). When hostility entered the relationship between microaggression and SDOA, both the indirect effect (B=.002, 95% CI [.000, .003]) and the direct effect (B=-.007, 95% CI [-.011, -.003]) turned out to be significant.

Conclusions and Implications: Our findings provide empirical evidence of the negative association between microaggressions and social distance towards the older population among South Korean queer youths, with further indication of the mediating role of hostility. These results reveal a unique social connectedness pattern of queer youths experiencing microaggressions: South Korean queer youths experiencing greater microaggressions have less social distance towards older adults, while hostility stemming from microaggressions hampers the establishment of positive social connections with the aging population. These findings suggest the need for further research on the nuanced mechanisms of how microaggression experienced by queer youth population influences their social interactions and development of intersectional solidarity with other minority groups as well as potential ways of addressing hostility along this path.