Study by SHA Senior to be Published in Leading Behavioral Science Journal

The Maryland-based Whitman Journal of Psychology will publish a study conducted by Bella Guerra '22:   "Assessing gender-based microaggressions present in 'friend-texts' at a single-sex school."   

 

WJP is the leading peer-reviewed journal for secondary behavioral science research. The editors receive over 450 submissions each year. Bella's work is one of approximately twelve that will see print in 2022.

Bella examined the ability of school culture to mediate the degree and type of internalized sexist comments present in teenage girls' friend-texts. A brief summary of "Assessing gender-based microaggressions..." is as follows:

"Internalized Sexism refers to women’s incorporation of sexism, relying on regular practice through gender microaggressions which are regularly practiced through conversation between women. 60 participants held a 12-minute “catch-up” conversation, coded for Bearman’s (2009) practices of gender microaggressions. Underclassmen exhibited significantly higher scores of conversational internalized misogyny than upperclassmen, suggesting that school culture mediated such practices."  

Ms. Guerra's publication is Sacred Heart Academy's ninth such accomplishment since Fall '2020.