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Abstract
Racism is a chronic stressor that negatively impacts the well-being and health of Black Americans. This dissertation project aimed to further understand the impact of Black women’s experiences of racism and the potential role of cultural coping in Black women’s health outcomes. The first study examined whether there were indirect effects between experiences of racial discrimination and health (i.e., depression, sleep quality, and emotional eating) through John Henryism, a cultural coping response that emphasizes strength, among middle-aged Black women. Results indicated that discrimination was associated with sleep problems and emotional eating, but there were no indirect effects through John Henryism. The second study examined John Henryism as well as the Strong Black Woman (SBW) schema, a cultural expectation for Black women to exhibit strength, determination, emotional suppression, and excessive caregiving, as potential explanatory variables in the relationship between Black undergraduate women’s experiences of gendered racism and health outcomes (i.e., depression, anxiety, stress, and sleep quality). Gendered racism was associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. There were no significant indirect effects through John Henryism but there were through the SBW schema, such that with increased experiences of gendered racism, women endorsed more internalization of the SBW schema and increased depression and increased stress symptoms. Taken together, the results from these studies reveal the negative health outcomes associated with experiences of racial discrimination among Black women. Additionally, results from Study 2 highlight the significance of cultural coping responses such as the SBW schema among Black women in response to racial discrimination. More broadly, these studies underscore the need to use an intersectional approach to understand Black women’s coping in response to race-based stress and the impact of racism on their health and well-being.