Socioeconomic status (SES) encompasses not just income but also educational attainment, financial security, and subjective perceptions of social status and social class. Socioeconomic status can encompass quality of life attributes as well as the opportunities and privileges afforded to people within society. Poverty, specifically, is not a single factor but rather is characterized by multiple physical and psychosocial stressors. Further, SES is a consistent and reliable predictor of a vast array of outcomes across the life span, including physical and psychological health. Thus, SES is relevant to all realms of behavioral and social science, including research, practice, education, and advocacy.

In recent years, understanding prejudice and discrimination toward minorities has developed to include the investigation of microaggressions. Microaggressions are brief and commonplace verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities. They are intentional or unintentional and communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights toward racial and sexual minorities. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to chronicle the prevalence and type of microaggressions experienced among a sample of 18 highly educated and racially diverse sexual minorities, 24-65 years of age. The impact of microaggressions on physical and psychological health is central to our investigation. Thematic data analysis was used to analyze 14 interviews and one focus group, which resulted in the following themes of microaggressions: (a) discomfort/disapproval with LGBT experience, (b) assumption of universal experience, (c) traditional gender role stereotyping, (d) denial of personal privacy, (e) exoticization, (f) ascription of intelligence, (g) policing bodies, and (h) assumption of criminality. Research findings may have implications for the development of interventions that can serve clinicians in their therapeutic work with microaggressed sexual minorities across racial diversity.

Seven ethnically and racially diverse researchers conducted phenomenological research using a semistructured interview investigating the presence and nature of microaggressions in the lives of 59 highly educated racial, gender, and sexual minority research participants, ranging in age from mid20s to mid60s. The minimum educational requirement for the study participation was a completed master's degree. Participants could be enrolled in a doctoral program and pursuing any discipline or could have previously obtained a doctoral degree. The relevance of resistance theory as a framework for understanding participants' experiences with and responses to microaggressions was investigated. Using thematic analysis within a social constructionist framework, 8 central themes were identified: (a) Suboptimal System; (b) Microaggressions Tax; (c) Acrid Environments; (d) Misconstruing Race, Gender, and Sexuality; (e) Assumption of Universal Experience; (f) Valuing Relationships; (g) Armored Resistance; and (h) Optimal Resistance. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

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