Black Women Research Articles

Racialized Gender Stress and Mental Health Among Black Women: a Test of the Vance-wade Intersectional Suicide Risk Model with Longitudinal Data.

The recent shift in Black women's suicide risk calls for a new paradigm focused on unique factors specific to Black womanhood. The Vance-Wade Intersectional Suicide Risk Model (VWISRM) was introduced to contextualize this unexpected spike. According to the VWISRM, for Black women, psychosocial risk factors, gendered racism, and the Strong Black Woman script (SBW) lead to racialized gender stress (RGS) which results in mental health outcomes which are established predictors of suicide-related behaviors. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) was used to test for empirical evidence supporting the VWISRM. Our sample consisted of 418 Black female adolescent respondents who fully participated in data collection during Waves 1, 3, and 4. We ran bivariate analyses to examine both (1) what psychosocial factors of Black women are associated with SBW traits, gendered racism, and racialized gendered stress and (2) what mental health outcomes are predicted by SBW traits, gendered racism, and racialized gendered stress. Our analysis showed having both lower scores on the SBW traits and experiencing gendered racism are associated with a PTSD diagnosis. Specifically, the analysis explained 30% of the variation in PTSD diagnoses among Black women. Having both lower scores on the SBW traits predicted anxiety, PTSD, and contemplating suicide, and having experienced RGS linked to depression anxiety and contemplating suicide. Importantly, there were no moderating effects among SBW traits and RGS on PTSD, anxiety, or suicidality. Findings highlight important research and clinical implications for Black women's mental health. The Gendered Racism Intersectional Trauma model (GRIT) is introduced to better understand the breadth of mental health outcomes for Black women. Notably, our findings make a new contribution to the scientific inquiry of PTSD in Black women.

Exploring black women's experiences of mental health services: a literature review.

The prevalence of mental health issues among black women is high, but they are underrepresented among mental health service users. This article details a systematised review of the literature that explored black women's perceptions and experiences of, and barriers to, engaging with mental health services. A total of 16 articles from the UK and North America were included in the review. Four main themes were identified as presenting barriers to black women's engagement with services: mistrust; sociocultural factors; lack of awareness; and practical barriers. The intersection of gender and race was evident in the 'strong black woman' ideal, which may have hindered their recognition and disclosure of mental health conditions, as well as in practical barriers such as costs and caring responsibilities. Historical and cultural perceptions of mental health issues and healthcare services, alongside their previous negative experiences of services, may prevent many black women from accessing essential support. Nurses and other healthcare professionals have an important role in engendering trust, challenging racism and promoting positive mental health.

Impostor Phenomenon, Group Stereotype Endorsement, and Black College Women’s Mental Health

The present research expands on impostor phenomenon (IP) literature by highlighting the role of susceptibility to group stereotype endorsement and IP on the mental health experiences of Black college women attending predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Specifically, the following study seeks to determine if there is an indirect effect between susceptibility to group stereotype endorsement and depression and anxiety via IP for these students. A sample of 414 Black college women attending PWIs completed an online survey including a demographic questionnaire, the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (Clance, 1985), a modified version of Shapiro’s Multi-Threat Framework Scale (Shapiro, 2011), and the Mental Health Inventory-18 (Veit & Ware, 1983; Weinstein et al., 1989). The findings of the data analyses indicated that there is an indirect effect on susceptibility to group stereotype endorsement and depression and anxiety via IP. These findings highlight the need to examine contextual factors on IP and mental health outcomes for Black women students. The discussion section offers recommendations for preventing and responding to IP with this population.

Ain’t I a Woman? A Look at the Beauty of Blackness Amid the Internalized Body Politic of Genteel Whiteness

Ain’t I a Woman? This question was raised by activist and self-emancipated former slavewoman Sojourner Truth, who validly questioned the body politic of identity when contextualized to perceptions of female personhood. Essentially, what Truth challenged were presumptions about the standards set to revere female bodies through markers of genteel Whiteness, while the worth of embodied Blackness, precisely the beauty of Black women, is reviled. In this article, I seek to raise awareness about factors of patriarchy and societal ramifications. Patriarchy is a systematized phenomenology of norms privileging the male gaze. The White male gaze, particularly in strongholds of power, influences the body politic of communal identity. Black women tend to lean on their faith to embody strength, yet patriarchy also encumbers the gendered body politic in religious spheres. As a womanist scholar, my analysis considers the intricate roles that patriarchy holds in the cultural production of a genteel, pretty woman image, wherein the aura of Whiteness grounds a body politic that deems Blackness as other. Despite the influences of prevailing macrosystems, I propose a theoethic of self-love to push against negatively biased identity boundaries by affirming ways to embrace Black beauty with a subversive imperative to love oneself regardless.

Alteridade e exclusão: o olhar para o outro no poema e na narrativa

This article aims to present two text analytical exercises from the artistic-literary sphere that address increasingly necessary and urgent themes to discuss in the classroom: refugees and black women, minorities that are still absent from many curricula. The analytical exercises of the poem “Army (chusma) of black roses” (2017), written by Cristiane Sobral, and the narrative Two boys of Kakuma (2018), written by Marie Ange Bordas, serve as a proposal for reading activities with students in the final years of elementary education, as they deal with relationships of otherness. These exercises are based on the perspective of Dialogical Discourse Analysis (Brait, 2008), originating from the extensive work on Mikhail Bakhtin and the Circle, in which the other is constitutive of the self. The theoretical foundation is based on the self-other relationship posited by Bakhtin, ([1920/24] 2020) and the concept of otherness (Amorim, 2004). As a result, in our analyses, we point out the centers of values present in literary texts based on the relationship between self and other and, through linguistic-discursive analysis, we lead readers to reflect on themselves and their other.

Pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenomics of ribociclib in black patients with metastatic breast cancer the LEANORA study

Underrepresented populations’ participation in clinical trials remains limited, and the potential impact of genomic variants on drug metabolism remains elusive. This study aimed to assess the pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacogenomics (PGx) of ribociclib in self-identified Black women with hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2) advanced breast cancer. LEANORA (NCT04657679) was a prospective, observational, multicenter cohort study involving 14 Black women. PK and PGx were evaluated using tandem mass spectrometry and PharmacoScan™ microarray (including CYP3A5*3, *6, and *7). CYP3A5 phenotypes varied among participants: 7 poor metabolizers (PM), 6 intermediate metabolizers (IM), and one normal metabolizer (NM). The area under the curve did not significantly differ between PMs (39,230 h*ng/mL) and IM/NMs (43,546 h*ng/mL; p = 0.38). The incidence of adverse events (AEs) was also similar. We found no association between CYP3A5 genotype and ribociclib exposure. Continued efforts are needed to include diverse populations in clinical trials to ensure equitable treatment outcomes.

Sleep Health Disparity and Race/Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Status, and Gender: A Systematic Review

Despite improvement in US healthcare, racial and ethnic minorities have experienced health disparities including sleep health disparities. This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). We searched three electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science) from the earliest available date to September 2023 using the keywords sleep inequity, gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Studies published in languages other than English were excluded. Meta analysis, case reports, and editorials were also excluded. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of the National Library of Medicine and Keywords were used to search PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science. We also searched the reference lists of the selected articles. Using the search strategy, we identified 52 articles. After excluding 11 duplicate studies, we screened 41 articles. The studies not relevant to our search were further excluded and we finally assessed 16 full-text articles. Twelve of the 16 studies were cross sectional and 4 were prospective studies. Compared to Whites, increased prevalence of shorter sleep duration was found among people of diverse racial background. Similarly, individuals with lower socioeconomic status have been shown to have a disproportionate increase in insufficient sleep (1.62 times). Additionally, compared to White women, Black women were more likely to report short sleep (37% vs. 27%) and were less likely to obtain the recommended amount of sleep (52% vs. 64%). This review demonstrates disparities in sleep based on race/ethnicity as well as the effect of gender and socioeconomic status on the quality of sleep.

Un enfoque epistémico sobre el pelo como elemento interseccional de significación

In this text, halfway between the theoretical and the readings from the lens of popular ethnography (film, social movements, poetry, literature, and commercials), we traverse three stations: hair as a countercultural history of Black women, where an obvious juxtaposition exists between norms, institutions, and modes of presentation; as a linguistics, where we observe hair as a hermeneutic, where everything is pure metaphor and mimesis; and lastly, as performative, where a struggle is established involving truth, spaces, and not only what can be said but also shown and touched, through new languages and identities of power via hair. Yet, the text carries another layer, less obvious: the play with the ideas of how we deal with modernity-coloniality, which tells us what is worth investigating, thinking about, and publicizing. We could do nothing if we do not understand that the machinery of racism, discrimination, homophobia, poverty, and belief in white supremacy involve as many elements as there are hairs on our heads. We shout that from another academy, everything is possible: championed by ALMARGEN, a research group that delves into the symbiosis of understanding and analyzing hair beyond a mere aesthetic requirement that sets trends or influences. Attracting hegemonic nuances that compel us to delve deeper into the positions of individuals socially, politically, and epistemologically in diverse contexts that make us either choose or are compelled to position ourselves in order to perpetuate imposed standards about how we should appear and perceive our hair. Drawing upon an "on the margin" structure of the structural, which we elucidate in the present work.

Politicized caring as anti-carceral pedagogy: An ethnographic case study of a Black woman educator

ABSTRACT The “racialized social control infrastructure” of schools refers to the over-emphasis on controlling the behaviors and bodies of Black, and other, students of color. Politicized caring, or the strategic prioritization of the needs and desires of those traditionally marginalized, may be disruptive to it. The objective of this analysis is (1) to describe how one Black female educator enacts a pedagogy of politicized caring on a day-to-day basis and (2) to investigate how it intersects with one school’s social control infrastructure. Arising from a longitudinal, collaborative research partnership with a predominantly Black high school, the analysis features two years of data with over 80 observations and 13 interviews. The findings identify five discrete forms of enactment of politicized caring and shows how the educator uses them to buffer her students from the harsher elements of social control. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Reproductive Justice: A Framework for Improving Maternal Mental Health

The United States has the highest rate of maternal deaths compared to any high-income country, with the highest rate for Black women. Mental health conditions such as Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMAD) are the most common complication during the perinatal period and the leading cause of pregnancy-related death in the U.S. Nurses following a Reproductive Justice framework can improve perinatal mental health outcomes. The purpose of this article is to review the current maternal mental health crisis through the lens of the Reproductive Justice movement. By utilizing the three Reproductive Justice principles as a framework, this article will identify action steps that nurses can take today to help create a culture of health for mothers and babies.

Glutamate Transport Proteins and Metabolic Enzymes are Poor Prognostic Factors in Invasive Lobular Carcinoma.

Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC) is a subtype of breast cancer characterized by distinct biological features, and limited glucose uptake coupled with increased reliance on amino acid and lipid metabolism. Our prior studies highlight the importance of glutamate as a key regulator of ILC tumor growth and therapeutic response. Here we examine the expression of four key proteins involved in glutamate transport and metabolism - SLC3A2, SLC7A11, GPX4, and GLUD1/2 - in a racially diverse cohort of 72 estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) ILC and 50 ER+ invasive ductal carcinoma, no special type (IDC/NST) patients with primary disease. All four proteins are associated with increased tumor size in ILC, but not IDC/NST, with SLC3A2 also specifically linked to shorter overall survival and the presence of comorbidities in ILC. Notably, GLUD1/2 expression is associated with ER expression in ILC, and is most strongly associated with increased tumor size and stage in Black women with ILC from our cohort and TCGA. We further explore the effects of GLUD1 inhibition in endocrine therapy-resistant ILC cells using the small-molecule inhibitor R162, which reduces ER protein levels, increases reactive oxygen species, and inhibits oxidative phosphorylation. These findings highlight a potentially important role for glutamate metabolism in ILC, particularly for Black women, and position several of these glutamate-handling proteins as potential targets for therapeutic intervention in ILC.

A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis of Factors Affecting Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Willingness Among Black Women for HIV Prevention.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) can significantly reduce human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission among Black women in the United States (U.S.), a group disproportionately affected by HIV. However, PrEP uptake in this HIV-vulnerable population is low. This review analyzes the factors influencing Black women's PrEP willingness using the Behavioral Model for Vulnerable Populations (BMVP). Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, Study Design (PICOS) framework, we conducted a systematic literature search and selected 24 peer-reviewed studies on PrEP willingness. Narrative synthesis revealed a heterogeneous landscape of the determinants affecting PrEP willingness among Black women, categorized into three main domains. Predisposing demographic and social factors included younger age, unmarried status, higher education, sexual or gender minority identity, trust in healthcare providers, and perceived HIV risk. Predisposing behavioral factors included condomless sex, multiple partners, and engagement in sex work. Socioeconomic status, health insurance, healthcare access, support systems, and structural challenges were identified as enabling factors influencing Black women's PrEP willingness. Finally, the perceived need domain and health-related factors influencing the perceived need for PrEP included a history of sexually transmitted infections (STI), intimate partner violence (IPV), and birth control interference. This study emphasizes the complexity of the barriers and facilitators of PrEP uptake and, thus, the need for tailored interventions and health strategies to promote its use. Addressing the interconnected individual, interpersonal, and structural determinants of PrEP access is crucial for improving PrEP willingness and thereby advancing health equity in this population.

Black women and the preemie prep for parents (P3) program: Exploratory analysis of a clinical trial

•Black women receiving the smartphone P3 program had more preterm birth knowledge.•Black women receiving the P3 program were more prepared for healthcare decisions.•Black women receiving the P3 program talked more with partners about preterm birth.•Smartphone preterm birth education may overcome clinic-based education barriers.

Daring to Be a Mother: A Case Study on Being Black, Being Pregnant, and Being a STEM Doctoral Student

This singular holistic case study examined the experience of a Black pregnant mother pursuing doctoral studies in a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) field at a predominantly white flagship institution in the southern United States. We employed the tenets of critical race feminism in this study to demonstrate the ways in which structural racism and pervasive gender stereotypes, specifically as they relate to Black women, present obstacles to successful completion of doctoral STEM studies. We narrate her story to highlight the insight inherent within her intersecting identities that challenges dominant narratives about a Black pregnant doctoral student. In bringing to the fore four themes surfaced: the triple consciousness of layered Blackness, the pregnant Black tax, Chemical imbalance: mapping a white man’s reality onto a Black mother’s body, and internal struggles and the complex intra-actions that birthed them – we present a counternarrative to the dominant white-male centred STEM discourse that permeates the field. We conclude by extrapolating, from this case, considerations for faculty and institutions to understand better and act to comprehensively support Black students, in general, and Black mothers.

Genomic and Socioeconomic Determinants of Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer Survival: Insights from the All of Us Program.

Background: Breast cancer outcomes are worse among Black women in the U.S. compared to White women. While extensive research has focused on risk factors contributing to breast cancer; the role of genomic elements in health disparities between these racial groups remains unclear. This study aims to identify genomic variants and socioeconomic status (SES) determinants influencing racial disparities in breast cancer survival through multiple mediation analyses. Methods: Our investigation is based on the NIH-supported All of Us (AoU) program and analyzes 7452 female participants with malignant tumors of breast, including 5073 with genomic data. A log-rank test reveals significant racial differences in overall survival time between Black and White participants (p-value = 0.04). Multiple mediation analysis examines the effects of 9481 genetic variables across 23 chromosomes in explaining the racial disparity in survival, adjusting for SES variables. Results: 15 gene mutations, in addition to age, general health, and general quality of life, have significant effects (p-values < 0.001) in explaining the observed racial disparity. Mutations in TMEM132B, NARFL, SALL1, PAD12, RIPK1, ASB14, DCX, GNB1L, ARHGAP32, AL135787.1, WBP11, SLC16A12AS1, AP000345.1, IKBKB, and SUPT20H have significantly different distributions between Black and White participants. The disparity is completely explained by the included variables as the direct effect is insignificant (p-value = 0.73). Conclusions: The combined impact of SES determinants and genetic mutations can explain the observed differences in breast cancer survival among Black and White participants. Future studies will explore pathways and design in vivo and in vitro experiments to validate the functions of these genes.

Predicting Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in Black Women

Predicting Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in Black Women

Sex differences in state level prevalence of alcohol use among Black women and men in the United States

ABSTRACT Background To investigate differences in alcohol use among Black men and women across U.S. states, using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Methods Measured any alcohol use, heavy drinking (i.e., 8+/15+ drinks for women/men in a 7-day period), and binge drinking (i.e., 4+/5+ drinks in one session). Weighted prevalence estimates were age-standardized to the 2000 US population. Results Binge drinking among Black men in Midwestern states was high, ranging from 40% in Minnesota to 45.8% in Iowa. Black women in Southern states had 6–10% points higher prevalence of heavy drinking than Black men. Conclusions Drinking prevalence in Southern states was higher than expected, especially among Black women.

Reclaiming My Womb

In Children of Blood and Bone and The Hunted, Tomi Adeyemi and L.A. Banks reclaim the isolated Black womb and reattach it to the human to which it belongs, thus humanizing Black women. This humanization of Black women combats the dominant narrative that seeks to reduce Black female identities to what their bodies can produce for the Western patriarchy world founded on capitalist exploitation. Their wombs are a counternarrative to the tired trope of the almighty phallus that disfigures phallic power into a deadly weapon, only suitable for destruction. Banks’ and Adeyemi’s placement of symbolic wombs highlights the power of wombs as a space where spirit and body meet to upend oppressive world orders rooted in spiritual darkness. Here, even the phallus achieves greater power. The womb exposes the phallus’s ability to invest life and further incubates that life to create revolution. Together the phallus and womb work to display the necessary fetation of rebellion, resistance, and liberation. Banks and Adeyemi join the scores of Black feminist writers who insist on the unity of Black masculinities and Black feminism to ensure the futurity of Black liberation.

Egg providers in eGoli

AbstractIn South Africa's urban hubs, young women are increasingly participating in the global fertility market by donating their eggs. Egg providers, who supply oocytes for others’ use in fertility treatment, are a key resource in the fertility market, and they are emblematic of new forms of biolabor. Egg markets have tapped into a precariously middle‐class population of young Black women in Johannesburg, where the neoliberal state has largely retreated from fostering social mobility. What role does egg donation play in the social world of young South African women? I approach this question by extending Cohen's concept of “operability,” which can illuminate how egg donation becomes a means for young women to enact modernity, or relationality beyond the postapartheid state and the horizons of their social worlds, structured as they are by the entanglements of race, class, and gender.

The Indirect Effects of Negative Affect Reduction Motives on the Relationship Between Sex and Severity of Problems When Trying to Quit Among Black Adults Who Smoke

Background. African American/Black (hereafter referred to as Black) persons who smoke constitute a tobacco disparities group in the United States. Within the Black population, female smokers experience a disproportionate percentage of these disparities and are less likely to quit cigarettes than their male counterparts. Two factors implicated in female smokers’ relatively worse quit success are (1) motives to smoke to reduce negative affect and (2) expectancies that smoking will reduce negative affect. Objectives. The present study sought to test sex differences in these two clinically relevant cognitive constructs and evaluate the indirect effects of sex and severity of problems when trying to quit via smoking motives and expectancies for negative affect reduction among Black adults who smoke. Participants included 103 Black adults who smoke daily (72% male; Mage = 44.5 years, SD = 11.5 years). Results. Results revealed sex differences in both negative affect reduction motives and expectancies, as well as a partial indirect effect for sex on the severity of problems when trying to quit through negative affect reduction motives (a1b1 = 0.18, 95% CI [0.04, 0.38]) but not negative affect reduction expectancies (a2b2 = −0.01, 95% CI [-0.11, 0.09]) in a simultaneous model of indirect effects. Conclusions. These findings shed light on the complex relationship between race, sex, and severity of problems when trying to quit, particularly when complicated by smoking motives and expectancies. Current data should be considered when developing sex-specific, tailored smoking cessation interventions for Black women.