RACIAL MICROAGGRESSION EXPERIENCES AND COPING MECHANISMS OF GRADUATE STUDENTS IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAMS

Racial Microaggressions and the coping of graduate students of Color in School Psychology programs were examined. A national sample (N = 145) was collected from programs approved by APA and NASP. Two measures were administered to assess racial microaggressions occurrences and coping strategies. Results of the study suggest that there is a difference of racial microaggression experiences by Race. It showed that Black participants experience more racial microaggressions than Asian, Hispanic or Latino/a, Multiracial and White graduate students. Participants preferred positive rather than negative coping strategies when experiencing racial microaggressions. Practical implications to support graduate students of color and future directions for research are discussed.


LIST OF TABLES
Minority Recruitment and Retention (1993) established that there is an underrepresentation of ethnic minority students, faculty, practitioners and researchers in psychology. In that resolution, the authors suggested higher recruitment and retention of ethnic minority students across all levels of education in psychology. Similarly, the Directory of Bilingual School Psychologists was analyzed by Fagan and Wise (2007), who noted that only 45% of school psychologists stated they were proficient in Spanish. However, many of these were school psychologists practicing in Spanish speaking countries; there is a need for more psychologists in the U.S. who represent its diversity. For that reason, it is important to consider how to support graduate students of color while completing their academic degrees in school psychology in order to continue the effort to include diversity in all levels of education. Therefore, this study proposes to assess one aspect of the need for such support by examining racial and ethnic microaggressions experienced by students in graduate programs in school psychology and how students cope with these experiences.
According to Curtis et al (2008) only 7.9% of school psychologists in the US are from ethnic minority groups. An earlier study estimated that there are only 175 ethnic minority graduate students in School Psychology and that the numbers had not changed that much in the last years (Curtis, Grier & Hunley, 2003). In the field of School Psychology, ethnicity is primarily White or Caucasian and the small percent of ethnic minority groups has not changed much in the last ten years, even though many initiatives and policies have been created to increase the number of school psychologists from ethnic minority backgrounds (Curtis et al, 2008). In the same article, Curtis (2008) also described the large disparities between practicing psychologists and the population served in the schools, which has become more diverse over the years. In other words, there is a shortage of school psychologists, but especially minority school psychologists (Davis, McIntosh, Phelps, and Kehle, 2004).
The article by Davis et al. (2004) suggested that the field of School Psychology should increase cultural competence by increasing the number of culturally diverse psychologists in the field. In addition, the authors suggested the need to reconceptualize previous policies and consider new ones that could increase the recruitment and retention of school psychologists, especially school psychologists from minority groups.
The purpose of the study is to investigate graduate students' experiences with racial/ethnic microaggressions during their graduate preparation in School Psychology. More specifically, what types of racial microaggressions do school psychology graduate students experience (e.g. microinvalidations), how frequently have they encountered microaggressions (e.g., 4 times in the last six months)?
Secondly, the study investigates whether there is a difference between different races and racial/ethnic microaggressions experiences? In addition, the study explores how graduate students cope with microaggressions experiences, the strategies they employ, and the resources they rely on. Also, the study investigates which microaggressions are coped successfully, and which unsuccessfully.
The study answers the following research questions: 1) What types of racial/ethnic microaggressions, do participants experience during their graduate preparation?
2) Is there a difference between races and racial/ethnic microaggressions experiences?
3) What coping strategies do participants use, and what resources do they rely on when they encounter racial/ethnic microaggressions? 4) Which microaggressions are coped with successfully, and which unsuccessfully?
The present study proposes a new conceptualization of the problem of retention by evaluating whether racial microaggresions might be responsible for an unwelcoming environment in graduate programs and so affect graduate students' completion of their degrees. At the same time, the present study investigates the characteristics and coping mechanisms of successful graduate students from minority groups that can be further evaluated to create new programs that support graduate students of color in School Psychology.

Racial Microaggresions
The study of Racial Microaggressions is an area that is growing in interest in psychology. The term racial microaggressions was first introduced by Chester Pierce in the 1970's and was defined as "subtle, stunning, often automatic, and non-verbal exchanges which are 'put downs'" (Pierce, Carew, Pierce-Gonzalez & Willis, 1978, p. 66; as cited in Sue et al, 2007, p. 273).
Racism is a delicate topic in many social contexts. Since the Civil Rights movement, society has tried to have a more egalitarian view of races (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000;Sue et al., 2007). As a consequence, racism in its blatant or overt form is prohibited by law, to the extent that nowadays many can argue that racism does not exist and that it is not a problem in the US. However, contemporary researchers contest that idea by presenting studies that suggests there is a form of modern racism that is covert and subtle (Dovidio, Gaertner, Kawakami & Hodson, 2002). Every day, indirect and unconscious racism still permeates our society. Pearson, Dovidio and Gaertner (2009)  identity. An example of microinsults is an employee who asks a co-worker of color how she got her job, implying she may have landed it through an affirmative action or quota system. Researchers use the term microinvalidations to refer to communications that subtly exclude, negate, or nullify the thoughts, feelings or experiential reality of a person of color. For example, a White person asking a Latino/a where they were born, conveying the message that they are perpetual foreigners in their own land. Several studies have explored how racial microaggressions are experienced by African Americans (Sue et al., 2008), Latina/os (Rivera, Forquer & Rangel, 2010), Asian Americans (Sue, Bucceri, Lin, Nadal, & Torino, 2010), indigenous people (Hill, Kim, & Williams, 2010, Clark et al., 2011, and students of color (Sue, Lin, Torino, Capodilupo, & Rivera, 2009). These researchers found that people of color experiencing different microaggressions in their everyday lives are subject to pervasive and negative impacts on their mental health (Nadal, 2011, Sue et al., 2008. A study evaluated negative race-related experiences in School Psychology (Clark, Mercer, Zeigler-Hill, & Dufrene, 2012). The study conducted by Clark and colleagues (2012) evaluated the factors that could be barriers to the success of ethnic minority graduate students in School Psychology. They assessed academic achievement and social and emotional experiences (belongingness and emotional distress). The sample of the study consisted of 87 ethnic minority students and 313 ethnic majority students. The researchers found that ethnic minority students experienced higher level of emotional distress, lower level of belongingness and more negative race-related experiences with lower perception of belongingness (Clark, Mercer, Zeigler-Hill, & Dufrene, 2012). This study was one of the firsts to use quantitative methods to confirm microaggression experiences in School Psychology programs; however it did not differentiate by microaggression type and race.
Overall, in the area of racial microaggressions, there is a lack of quantitative research that explores the experiences of graduate students of color as well as their coping mechanisms for dealing with microaggressions. This fact is particularly true in the field of school psychology where principal organizations such as NASP and APA are striving to increase the representation of school psychologists of color in every area of the discipline (National Association of School Psychologists (NASP, 2010). In addition, since the US is becoming more diverse, our schools are also becoming more diverse. Presently, this can be seen in the percentage of students receiving English as a Second Language services or being categorize as English Language Learners (ELL).
In the US 10.8 million children in public schools speak a language other than English at home, and 25% of them speak English with difficulty (U.S. Dept. of Education,

2008).
For this reason, it is critical to increase and retain graduate students of color in the field of school psychology that could better serve the evolving population of children in the schools. Therefore, exploring racial microaggressions experiences in graduate students in school psychology programs can help inform research about how these successful individuals cope with these pervasive experiences and complete their degrees. The results of this study may provide valuable information that could assist in the creation of interventions tailored by race to support graduate students through the completion of their graduate degrees.

Coping with Racial Microaggressions
Coping refers to the things people do to protect themselves from being psychologically harmed by life strains (Pearlin & Schooler, 1978). Experiencing racism whether it is overt or covert has pervasive effects on individuals of color.
Racism is associated with high levels of stress that in turn contribute to mental and physical health impairments, such as depression and heart disease (Brondolo et al., 2009b). Research has reported that for some ethnic minority groups, racism related experiences occur on a weekly basis (Brondolo et al., 2009a). Other studies reported that most ethnic minority individuals experience racism over the course of their lifetime (Kriger, 1990as cited in Wei et al., 2010. In order to reduce stress and the negative outcomes of racism, it is important for minorities to learn coping strategies. A qualitative study by Hernandez, Carranza, & Almeida (2010) evaluated mental health professionals' adaptive responses to racial microaggressions. The researchers identified eight coping themes when experiencing racial microaggressions.
These were: identifying key issues in responding to racial microaggressions, self-care, spirituality, confrontation, support, documentation, mentoring, and collective organizing.
Similarly, in a qualitative study, Salazar (2009) investigated the strategies that counseling faculty of color use to survive and thrive in academia. The author found that for the participants surviving was beyond acquiring a tenured position; it required several actions that helped them withstand and rise above the pernicious effects of microaggressions. The general themes found were: safeguarding self, affirming one's sense of selfhood, finding, building, and maintaining a support network, coping (attitudes and internal qualities, and actions that help create and maintain them), and choosing to leave or remain where you are. The participants recognized the pervasive effects of microaggressions that undermined their wellbeing and compromised their energy and creative force, reducing their productivity. They also recognized the importance of having some general strategies to better deal with microaggressions experiences.
Thus, experiencing racial microaggressions can affect negatively the mental health of people of color. Graduate students of color who might be dealing with these racial microaggressions and with the pressure and regular demands of graduate school, are at greater risk to have mental health problems. This in turn might affect their retention and completion of their graduate degrees.

METHODOLOGY Design
The study design is descriptive and exploratory. The study consists of using demographic information along with the Racial and Ethnic Microaggression Scale (REMS) to explore graduate students' experiences with racial/ethnic microaggressions during their graduate preparation in School Psychology. Secondly, the study investigates whether there is a difference between races and racial/ethnic microaggressions experiences? In addition, the study explores how graduate students cope with microaggressions experiences, the strategies they employ, and the resources they rely on. Also, the study investigates which microaggressions are coped successfully, and which unsuccessfully. The primary analyses were conducted by using Race as the independent variable and using the racial microaggression and the coping measure separately as dependent variable.

Participants
The total sample of the study was N = 145 (N Males = 13, 13.1%, and N Females = 126, 86.7%). The sample was representative of the population. It represented an 82.9% of the US population of ethnic minority graduate students in School Psychology, a total of 175 students (Curtis et al., 2003). Most of the participants were between the ages of 26-30 years old (44.5%), followed by 21-25 age range (38.1%).
The sample included graduate students of color (n = 108, 74.4%), international graduate students (n = 24, 16.6%), and students of color who graduated in the last six months (n = 13, 9%). The majority of the sample was female (86.7%). In the study, the percentage of participants by race was similar between Blacks (27.1%), Hispanic or Latino/a (25.7 %), and Asian (24.3%). Fewer participants were from White (11.8%) and Multiracial (11.1%) descent.
The majority of the participants spoke English as their first language (n = 117 or 80.7%), from these participants (n = 61 or 42.1%) only spoke English, and (n = 84 or 58%) spoke a second language. The highest degree completed from participants was a Master's degree (n = 69 or 47. reported that there were two students of color in their program, followed by one student of color (28.3%).

Measures
Demographics Questionnaire. A demographic questionnaire was provided to the participants so they can identify their gender, age, race, ethnicity, level of education, program in school psychology (specialist or doctoral level), year in the school psychology program and expected graduation date. Participants could participate in the study if they met the following criteria: Graduate students of color in School Psychology programs, graduate students of color who graduated in the last six months, and international graduate students in a School Psychology program of the US. Graduate of student of color had to identify as a racial or ethnic minority and choose within the following options for later analyses: Asian, Black, Hispanic or Latino/a, White and Multiracial. These options were chosen to mirror the criteria used in Nadal (2011). See appendix A. Disengagement, (7) Self-Distraction, (8) Self-Blame, (9) Positive Reframing, (10) Humor, (11) Denial, (12) Acceptance, (13) Religion, and (14)  2) Is there a difference between races and racial/ethnic microaggressions experiences?

REMS. The Racial Ethnic
3) What coping strategies do participants use, and what resources do they rely on when they encounter racial/ethnic microaggressions? 4) Which microaggressions are coped with successfully, and which unsuccessfully?

Racial Microaggressions
The     All of these comparisons, the biggest differences were observed between Blacks and Whites, followed by Blacks and Asians, Blacks and Multiracial, and Blacks and Hispanics or Latino/a. Other races were not found to be statistically significant with other groups other than Blacks (p > .05).

Coping
The descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) for the coping measure Brief COPE are presented in detail in Table 2 Descriptive statistics were also calculated by race on the Brief COPE (See Table 2 Post hoc comparisons using the Tukey HSD test indicated that group differences were found on all the significant subscales mentioned above except for There was also a significant difference between Blacks and Hispanic or that Blacks used more coping strategies related to religion than the other races (Hispanic or Latino and Asian followed by White) when microaggressions occurred.

Coping with Racial Microaggressions
The means from Table 1 and Table 2

DISCUSSION
The term Racial Microaggressions is defined as "brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or group" (Sue et al, 2007, p.273). Microaggressions exists in both social and academic collegiate environments (Solórzano, Ceja and Yosso, 2000). For that reason, it is important to explore RM in School Psychology programs and how to support graduate students of color while completing their academic degrees in order to continue the effort to include diversity in all levels of education.
The purpose of the present study was to explore the racial microaggressions and the coping strategies graduate students of color and White international students experienced during their graduate preparation in School Psychology. More specifically, what types of racial microaggressions do school psychology graduate students experience (e.g., microinvalidations), and how frequently have they experienced microaggressions (e.g., 4 times in the last six months)? Secondly, the study investigates whether there is a difference between races and racial/ethnic microaggression experiences? In addition, the study explores how graduate students cope with microaggression experiences, the strategies they employ, and the resources they rely on. Also, the study investigates which microaggressions are coped with successfully, and which unsuccessfully.

The present study examined Racial Microaggressions in graduate School
Psychology programs around the US. The exploratory findings provide confirmation of the occurrence of racial microaggressions experiences in School Psychology programs (Clark et al., 2012). In the sample, 87.6% experienced at least one microaggression, and only 12.4% experienced no microaggressions. In general, graduate students of color experienced more microaggressions related to Exoticization and Assumption of Similarity, followed by Assumptions of Inferiority,

Microinvalidations, and Workplace and School Microaggressions. The microaggressions type experienced least by participants was Second-Class Citizen and
Assumptions of Criminality.
The study found that Black graduate students experience higher and more frequent incidents of microaggressions. Asians were next, closely followed by Hispanic or Latino/a, Multiracial and White graduate students. These findings are consistent with the literature on microaggressions where Black individuals experienced far more microaggressions than other races. The literature suggests that darker skin tone Blacks are more likely to experience discrimination (Borrell et al., 2006). The findings indicate that in School Psychology programs the students more affected by microaggressions are Black. This finding extends the research by Clark et al. (2012) where they found that ethnic minority students in School Psychology experienced higher microaggressions than ethnic majority (European descent) students. The findings of this current study found that within ethnic minority students in School Psychology, Black students had higher microaggression experiences.
However, when looking at coping strategies with race, Black students were the participants with higher use of coping strategies. This suggest that although they are frequently victims of microaggression experiences they usually have positive coping strategies, such as looking for emotional or instrumental support with friend and loved ones and religion. A reason for this finding could be the effect of their parents, family member or friends teaching (explicitly and not explicitly) Black students to cope with these experiences since they were very young. Although ethnic identity was not evaluated in this study, this construct could be an important aspect of coping (Sauceda, 2010).
Additionally, Black students and all the participants on this study being graduate students are assumed to have great intrinsic motivation and probably high use of coping behaviors (Clark et al., 2012). However, the constant negative experience with microaggressions could affect negatively the students' mental health and wellbeing, and it might prompt them to drop-out of graduate school (Brondolo et al., 2009a, Torres et al., 2010. Also, there is evidence that ethnic minority students in School Psychology who experienced microaggressions, reported higher levels of emotional distress and lower levels of belongingness to the program (Clark et al., 2012). They also found that negative race-related experiences were associated with lower perceptions of belongingness (Clark et al., 2012).
Another important finding is that Asian participants experienced microaggressions related to Exoticization and Assumption of Similarity (i.e., when people of color may feel like perpetual foreigner), followed by Workplace and School microaggressions (i.e., when people of color feel ignored or treated differently by colleagues because of their race), and Assumptions of Inferiority (i.e., when people of color are assumed to be poor or hold substandard careers). There was a marked difference between Asians experiencing much more microaggressions related to Exoticization and Assumption of Similarity than Blacks. In the sample, Asians reported more microaggressions related to this, followed by Hispanic, and Multiracial individuals. This finding may be related to the fact that Asian and Hispanic or Latino/a are more recent immigrants to the US than Blacks. The data support previous findings on Asian and Hispanic or Latino/a feeling like perpetual foreigners in the country where they were born (Michael-Makri, 2010, Nadal, 2008a, Nadal et al., 2011. Another aspect to consider is that the majority of the sample (86.7%) was female, and a previous study at a university found that Latinas were more often exoticized (McCabe, 2009).
The study included international graduate students in School Psychology and many of them identified as White individuals. The study found that White participants also experienced racial microaggressions, particularly related to Exoticization and Assumption of Similarity, Assumption of Inferiority, and Workplace and School Microaggessions. In the sample, White individuals were the group with fewer microaggressions consistent with a previous study (Clark et al., 2012). Although research has shown that racial perceptions of people of color differ greatly from those of Whites (Jones, 1997 as cited in , this particular group of participants shared ethnic/cultural differences than American White individuals from European descent and it assumed that there were differences in racial perception. This finding confirms the need to expand the definition of racial microaggressions to include cultural microaggressions (Goodstein, 2008).
Overall, participants used coping strategies a "little bit" to a "medium amount" when exposed to microaggressions. The study also found that graduate students in this sample used more the following coping strategies: Use of Emotional Support, Acceptance, Use of Instrumental Support, Self-Distraction, Religion and Positive Reframing. In general, most participants coped with microaggressions by confiding and asking for support to another person. However, they also coped with microaggressions trying to forget the events distracting themselves, looking for a positive outlook of the incident and accepting the event as something that must be accommodated to, as opposed as something that can be easily changed (Carver, Scheier & Weintraub, 1989). These last coping strategies might negatively affect ethnic minority graduate students' mental health and might affect their desire to finish the degree.
In the study, most participants tended to cope with microaggressions by actively seeking support or getting support from a friend or loved one. They also coped with microaggressions by relying in religion and accepting the microaggressions incidents. Although participants were from different races and cultures they showed similar coping strategies when experiencing microaggressions.
This might be related to the fact that participants were graduate students who has been using more positive than negative coping strategies that has allow them to be in this academic position.
Overall, participants experienced racial microaggressions in School Psychology programs. Black participants experienced more microaggressions followed by Asian, and Hispanic or Latino/a participants. In the sample, participants used more positive coping strategies, such as Emotional Support and Religion, than negative coping strategies such as Denial or Self-Blame. Further exploration on these coping strategies is warranted to see whether these can help to decrease the negative effects of microaggressions, including that it might affect retention in the program and graduation rates of students of color.

Implications of the Results
The results of the current study demonstrate the existence of microaggressions in School Psychology programs. This study extends previous research by investigating the types of racial microaggressions graduate students experienced by race and the coping strategies graduate students use on their own. The implications of the results are important to many people especially graduate students, faculty, and retention officials.
Ethnic minority and international graduate students in School Psychology can find some validation of the race-related confusing experiences that they might had in the past in their programs. It is important that ethnic minority graduate students become knowledgeable and aware of racial microaggressions and its effects. It is also important for them to know what types of microaggressions were usually associated for their race as well as the coping strategies against microaggressions. Ethnic minority graduate students will benefit on finding and planning effective and positive ways of coping with racial microaggressions. Students of color within a program may benefit of coming together as a support group to discuss possible microaggressions, seek support and understanding as well as advice on a plan of action. Moreover, students should seek support and coping strategies in Religion related activities inside and outside the campus community.
Faculty in School Psychology programs might find this study helpful motivating them to become more knowledgeable and aware of racial microaggressions. Specifically, they should become more knowledgeable with Exoticization and Assumption of Similarity that was the most common experienced type of microaggressions in this study. Additionally, it will be beneficial to become familiar with the literature on how include multicultural issues on their courses as well as how to manage difficult dialogues in the classroom (Sue et al., 2011, Clark et al., 2012. In order to retain ethnic minority students, faculty should motivate programs to facilitate diverse social and professional activities to foster belongingness (Clark et al., 2012). It will also be of benefit to motivate programs and students of color to create and facilitate a support group or informal meetings inside or outside of campus that would meet at least monthly. In these meetings academic concerns and advice can be shared as well as to provide emotional support when racial microaggressions occur.
Moreover, faculty in School Psychology programs should consider these findings while performing advising and one-on-one meetings with their students of color.
Consequently, faculty would be able to be aware of the experiences their students might be going through with microaggressions and can suggest or provide students with effective coping strategies such as emotional support. Another important implication is that faculty can propose special interventions to make international students feel welcome, provide emotional support, and reassure them on their abilities (Gomez, Khurshid, Freitag & Lachuk, 2011). School Psychology programs should consider a creation of a multicultural task force composed of students and faculty where they can learn and discuss multicultural issues including microaggressions. In general, the current findings might be helpful to graduate students of color in other psychology fields as well as other fields outside psychology. It would also be helpful to undergraduate students in predominantly White universities. In addition, this study could benefit potentially School Psychologists working in the field that might be also experiencing racial microaggressions.
In sum, faculty and students can apply emotional and instrumental support to mentoring programs in School Psychology graduate programs. School Psychologists who work in higher education and researchers might find these results meaningful to allow them to become aware of microaggressions in their graduate programs and possibly create interventions to raise awareness as well as to support students of color providing mentorship and guidance aligned with their most used coping skills as found in this study. This way, faculty in School Psychology programs can create ways to provide support for their graduate students of color and this in turn might help increase retention and graduation.

Limitations and Future Directions
In the study there were some limitations.  .
Nonetheless, one of the reasons that a self-report measure such as the REMS might not be reflective of the experiences could be related to the ability of correctly recall all the microaggression incidents in the last six months. In addition, REMS had a dichotomous answer format that might be a limitation in itself and could have been more useful to use a Likert type answer format. Another important limitation could be a lack of knowledge and awareness of racial microaggressions that might impede the recognition of microaggressions. Another aspect to consider is that many of the participants were first year graduate students (26.4) and although the surveys were collected in March they still might have a limited view of their program.
Future directions are to explore more carefully the specific settings in which microaggressions are experienced by School Psychologists of color, for example, training programs and field practicums. Hopefully, the results of this study will allow other researchers to identify best ways to address microaggressions and to support graduate students of color in School Psychology programs. In addition, future research should also explore other variables alongside microaggressions such as school racial climate, connections with faculty and other peers in the program, and whether microaggressions affect their desire to finish graduate school. Furthermore, there is a need to explore the effectiveness of different intervention to minimize microaggressions and cope with it. Another important area of future research is to explore what other factors and microaggressions might affect international students' sense of belongingness and desire to finish degree and potentiality of staying in the US.
Finally, a more careful exploration of other intersections of microaggressions in graduate students is needed, such as gender, ethnic minority, sexual orientation and disability. In addition, it is important to investigate with more detail the potential mental health implications affecting graduate student's academic achievement and retention (Blume et al., 2011).

Summary and Conclusions
Racial Microaggressions and the coping of graduate students of Color in School Psychology programs were examined. A national sample of N = 145 was collected from programs approved by NASP and APA. Results of the study suggest that there is a difference of racial microaggressions experiences by race. It showed that Black participants experience more racial microaggressions, followed by Asians and Hispanics or Latino/a. Participants preferred more positive than negative coping strategies when experiencing racial microaggressions.
Thus, experiencing racial microaggressions can affect negatively the mental health of ethnic minority students. Graduate students of color who might be dealing with these racial microaggressions and with the pressure and regular demands of graduate school, are at greater risk to have mental health problems (Gomez et al., 201, Blume, Lovato, Thyken & Denny, 2011). This in turn might affect their retention and completion of their graduate degrees.
Racial microaggressions are an important topic to be discussed in School Psychology programs in the US. It is important to create awareness and educate students of color on ways to successfully cope with microaggressions and encourage and support them throughout their graduate career.