Multicultural Discrimination Experiences and Rumination: A Narrative Approach

Multicultural individuals in Canada are subject to many forms of discrimination. The present study sought to qualitatively examine these discrimination experiences and how the multicultural individuals who experience discrimination cognitively process, or ruminate, about those experiences. Rumination consists of persistent thoughts about negative experiences. Previous quantitative work (Borders & Liang, 2011) demonstrated that rumination constitutes a maladaptive coping strategy that mediates the associations between perceived discrimination, emotional distress, and aggression. The current study used a qualitative approach to represent and understand the complex lived experience of multicultural Canadians’ discrimination experiences and how those experiences are related to rumination. Explicit and implicit forms of discrimination were examined using a microaggressions framework (Nadal, 2011; Sue & al., 2007). Life story narrative interviews (McAdams, 1985) were conducted with 22 multicultural Canadians. Twenty-five discrimination themes emerged, including bullying, identity denial, and stereotyping, among others. Rumination (e.g., dwelling on negativity and unachieved standards, insistent and invasive thoughts etc.) and coping strategies (adaptive and maladaptive) were coded. Participants’ reflections on their discrimination experiences and the relation with rumination will be discussed. Correlation analyses revealed a positive link between discrimination and rumination, with some variations between the types of discrimination. These findings unpack the relationship between discrimination and multicultural individuals’ maladaptive and adaptive cognitive and coping strategies in the face of racism in our diverse societies.