It’s is Time to Make More Goals So I Can Keep Pushing: Hope, Growth, and Well-Being Among Young Black Women

Abstract

Well-being is important for everyone. However, some of our assumptions about well-being and personality have not been well-tested among historically excluded groups. Using a mixed-methods design, we considered young Black women’s hope, growth, and well-being. We hypothesized that endorsements of hope and expressions narrated of growth would be positively associated with well-being. We also tested for the presence of lay themes about well-being in life stories. Fifty-nine Black women from a southeastern US, Historically Black college ( M age = 19.25 years, SD = 1.27) reported on dispositional hope, provided three narratives about life challenges, and completed questionnaires regarding psychological well-being. Consistent with expectations, hope and growth were positively associated with multiple domains of well-being. Further, a content analysis supported existing lay themes of well-being among stories with more growth. Women who expressed growth also incorporated themes of emotional intimacy, competence, moral worth, and regard for their physical and mental health.