Adoption and Foster Microaggressions Amidst COVID-19: Pandemic-related Stress May Increase Negative Judgments of Others

Author

Mikala A. Grimaldi, Bridgewater State UniversityFollow
Holly A. Grant-Marsney, Bridgewater State UniversityFollow
Ashley A. Hansen-Brown, Bridgewater State UniversityFollow

Volume

29

Number

2

Department

Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Date

2023

Abstract

One community that has often been overlooked while facing frequent negative perceptions and stigma is adopted individuals. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of this research, we hypothesized that scenarios of individuals from foster and adoptive families would be more likely to be associated with common misrepresentations that emphasize child-like qualities and lower competency compared to non-adopted peers. We surveyed 313 participants through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, after exclusion criteria, the sample consisted of 217 participants. Although the original hypothesis was not supported, our results indicate that higher pandemic-related stress influences perceptions of entitlement and infantilization towards others regardless of their adoption status. This study provides further insight into how times of emotional distress, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, may increase negative judgments of others.

Keyword

adoption, microaggressions, person perception, pandemic

Discipline

Psychology

Document Type

article

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Recommended Citation

Grimaldi, Mikala A.; Grant-Marsney, Holly A.; and Hansen-Brown, Ashley A. (2023) "Adoption and Foster Microaggressions Amidst COVID-19: Pandemic-related Stress May Increase Negative Judgments of Others," Modern Psychological Studies: Vol. 29: No. 2, Article 2.
Available at: https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol29/iss2/2