Date
12-19-2023
Department
School of Behavioral Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling (EdD)
Chair
Raquel Guidry-Davis
Keywords
Strong Black Woman, mental health, seeking help, religiosity, stressful life events
Disciplines
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Stallings, Carlisa Anderson, "Examining Moderating Effects of the Strong Black Woman (SBW) Schema and Religiosity on Mental Health, Stressful Life Events, and Attitudes Toward Seeking Help for Professional Psychological Services" (2023). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5116.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5116
Abstract
Since the origins of slavery, Black women have consistently exhibited extraordinary strength and resilience in the face of diversity and stressful life experiences. Research has shown that stress often leads to adverse mental health outcomes, which often go untreated due to the reluctance of Black women to seek help to preserve the cultural ideal of the SBW schema. Due to complex and cumulative stress experiences encountered by Black women and concerns of untreated mental health disease, this quantitative research study utilized intersectionality and theory of planned behavior frameworks to explore the relationship between stressful life events and attitudes toward seeking help, and moderating effects of the SBW schema and religiosity. This study analyzed responses of 219 African American mothers assessing stressfulness of experienced life events, mental health, attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, adoption of the SBW schema, and religious involvement. Study results found that endorsement of the SBW schema (independence and stoicism) is related to adverse mental health and strengthened the positive relationships between stressful life events and adverse mental health. Additionally, the SBW schema (strength) was found to attenuate the relationship between depression and attitudes toward seeking help, while SBW schema (independence) was found to strengthen the relationship between anxiety and attitudes toward seeking help. The SBW schema (strength) strengthened the relationship between gendered racial microaggressions and attitudes toward seeking help, mediated by depression. Subjective religiosity was found to weaken the relationship between gendered racial microaggressions and anxiety, and both organizational and subjective religiosity strengthened the relationships between gendered racial microaggressions and attitudes toward seeking help.
