Relationships among skin color and hair satisfaction, psychological resistance, social appearance anxiety, and social networks among black women

Abstract

Black women in the United States face "multiple jeopardy", or multiple oppressions of racism, sexism, and classism in conjunction with pressures to meet white American beauty standards. Using a mixed method research design, 259 black women were surveyed to examine the relationships among skin tone and hair satisfaction, social appearance anxiety, social networks, and psychological resistance among black women. This study adds to the literature of colorism and psychological resistance, and is one of the first research efforts to investigate the impact of skin color and hair satisfaction on social appearance anxiety among black women. Noteworthy quantitative and qualitative results suggest the following: a) skin color hue group differences in skin color satisfaction, social appearance anxiety, and optimal and suboptimal psychological resistance; b) the positive association of suboptimal resistance with social appearance anxiety; c) the inverse relationship between skin color satisfaction and social appearance satisfaction; d) the endorsement of hair satisfaction; and e) the influence of social networks on anxiety about skin color and hair appearance.