Michael McFarland, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Sociology at Florida State University, was the lead author of “Racial Slurs by Police and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: Intrusive Policing and Perceived Injustice” published in the Journal of Urban Health, alongside Kyleigh Moniz, a Ph.D. Sociology Student at FSU; Cheryl McFarland, Ph.D.; and Lauren Manley, M.S. The following summary was written by Anya Finley (B.S. Political Science and Philosophy ‘25).
Florida State University Associate Professor of Sociology Michael McFarland, Ph.D., is the lead author of “Racial Slurs by Police and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: Intrusive Policing and Perceived Injustice” published in the Journal of Urban Health. The article examines the effects that police officers’ use of slurs has on minority youth and their posttraumatic stress.

The study investigates the impact when police officers use slurs against minority youth. Dr. McFarland and co-authors found nine percent of minority youth in a Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Survey reported hearing a racial slur used by a police officer, and those who did hear a slur during an encounter with police had more posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS).
Dr. McFarland notes that community leaders, scholars, and the public are increasingly recognizing the harmful influence of some law enforcement practices and agencies on the wellbeing of individuals and communities, particularly those of color. What is less known is why policing can be harmful, given that most stops do not involve physical force nor arrest.
“In a society that subscribes to principles of equality and equal justice under the law, people have expectations that they will be treated fairly when interacting with authorities, regardless of their race or ethnicity,” Dr. McFarland said. “The proposed link between racial slurs and mental health is due to perceptions that the police officers were not fair and had violated these expectations. Violations of these expectations, especially by police, which are government-supported representatives of society, may be seen as inequitable and cause harm to the individuals after the encounter.”
Dr. McFarland and the team utilized data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Survey. They then used a multivariable progressive modeling technique to test whether hearing a slur was associated with PTS. The researchers also employed the Monte-Carlo Method for Assessing Mediation to test whether hearing a racial slur is linked to PTS because it is considered inherently unfair.
“Mental health practitioners often use screeners to identify what types of mental health-diminishing exposures youth have experienced. They use this information in making diagnoses and to make treatment plans,” Dr. McFarland explained. “Our work suggests screeners should ask not only about being stopped by police but the characteristics of that encounter as well, including those imbued with racial animus.”
While Dr. McFarland found that the use of racial slurs in the sample data was high, the context of the racial slur was unclear. “People could presumably disagree as to what constitutes a racial slur,” Dr. McFarland noted. “But based on the high percentage of slurs, I believe qualitative interviews with youth that are stopped by police and hear a racial slur would help answer some of our questions. For instance, are there patterns in how and when police officers use slurs; and how youth process these phenomena – both internally and with the help of others (e.g. family or friends).”
To learn more about Dr. McFarland and his work, click here, or to learn more about FSU’s Department of Sociology, click here.
McFarland, M. J., McFarland, C. A. S., Moniz, K., & Manley, L. (2023). Racial Slurs by Police and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: Intrusive Policing and Perceived Injustice. Journal of urban health: bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 100(5), 904–913. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-023-00747-6