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Date of Award

3-2019

Document Type

Restricted Thesis: Campus only access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Psychology

Department

Psychology

First Reader/Committee Chair

Agars, Mark

Abstract

The scarcity of research on women of color’s (WOC) workplace experiences indicates that little is known about the factors that shape their intersectional experiences of stress at work. A review of the limited research on this population suggests that ethnic identity may be central to WOC perceptions and experiences of representation at work. This study examined the relationship between representation and stress for White identified women and WOC in the workplace. A sample of 272 working women was used to examine the role of ethnicity and ethnic identity as moderators along with mentorship and social support as mediators on the association between representation and stress using an online survey. A path analysis found that the hypothesized model was a good fit for the data and that ethnicity did moderate the relationship between representation and social support. Ethnicity was not found to moderate the relationship between representation and mentorship; however, under-representation of WOC in leadership/seniority roles and complex mentor/mentee relationships may have impacted these results. Future research on WOC in the workplace should account for the influence of complex social identities on their perceptions of representation and stress. Organizations/industries, wanting to recruit and retain demographically diverse talent, may also benefit from understanding how ethnicity may influence WOC’s perceptions of representation and stress.

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