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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cultural Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1469950

"I think we're on a cusp of some change": coping and support for mental wellness among Black American women

Provisionally accepted
Terika McCall Terika McCall 1,2,3*Meagan Foster Meagan Foster 1Holly Tomlin Holly Tomlin 1,4Bolatito Adepoju Bolatito Adepoju 1Mckenzie Bolton- Johnson Mckenzie Bolton- Johnson 5Chyrell Bellamy Chyrell Bellamy 6
  • 1 Division of Health Informatics, Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
  • 2 Section of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
  • 3 Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
  • 4 School of Law, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
  • 5 MMJ Counseling & Consulting, Garner, United States
  • 6 Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Public discussions in the media (e.g., social media, reality shows) about Black women’s mental health have become more common. Notably, celebrities have become more vocal about their own mental health challenges and sought to normalize seeking care. This study aimed to gain a better understanding of Black women’s: (1) past and current causes of stress, anxiety, and/or depression, and coping skills used; (2) their attitudes and perceptions towards mental health and receiving mental health treatment; and (3) times in their life they felt anxious or depressed, and what type of support and/or resources would have been helpful to have access to. Focus groups were conducted with 20 women (mean age 36.6 years, SD 17.8 years), with 5 participants per group. Descriptive qualitative content analysis of the focus group transcripts was conducted. Results consistently showed that intersectional identities of being both Black and a woman resulted in feelings of both hypervisibility and invisibility, representation matters when it comes to mental health providers, an increased openness to therapy across age groups, and a willingness to try digital health tools (e.g., smartphone app) for mental health needs. There is still work to be done to normalize mental health treatment among Black women. Subgroups within the community (e.g., young adults) have less stigma around mental health and are acting as catalysts for change. Intentional inclusion of Black women in mental health research and evolving treatment paradigms is important to eliminate inequities in access to culturally relevant mental health care.

    Keywords: Black or African American, Women, Mental Health, Anxiety, Depression, Telemedicine, mHealth, Digital Health

    Received: 24 Jul 2024; Accepted: 10 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 McCall, Foster, Tomlin, Adepoju, Bolton- Johnson and Bellamy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Terika McCall, Division of Health Informatics, Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.