AN EXAMINATION OF THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN MICROAGGRESSION AND WELL-BEING AMONG LATINA/OS OF MEXICAN-DESCENT IN THE UNITED STATES.

An intensifying anti-immigrant environment has caused vulnerabilities in the Mexican-descent population in the U.S. Using perspectives of microaggression (Sue 2010 a, b), we argue that the anti-immigrant environment has created a context where subtle discriminations are permitted and tolerated and that perceiving microaggression is negatively associated with well-being. We test the relationship between perceiving microaggression and well-being using generalizable data from the National Survey of Latinos (2008) for a sample of population of Mexican-descent (N=1,220) in the U.S. We focus on individuals with Mexican ancestry because not only do they form the largest ethnic minority in the U.S., they also have been subjected to strong anti-immigrant rhetoric and have been recently deported in record numbers. Our results indicate that perceiving microaggression is related to lower levels of well-being (p<0.001); further, perceiving some microaggression, as opposed perceiving none, increases the odds of intermediate level of well-being (p<0.01) and poor well-being (p<0.001) when compared with a high level of wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]