Abstract
Recent investigations have elucidated the influence of the Strong Black Woman (SBW) Schema on the mental health and treatment seeking behaviors of Black women in the United States. However, the SBW schematic characteristics that produce depression have yet to be identified. The current study fills this void in the literature through a quantitative examination of how characteristics of the SBW Schema relate to depressive symptomology. Analyses were based on 194 participants, including college students (n = 98) and community members (n = 96), ranging in age from 18 to 82 years-old (M = 37.53, SD = 19.88). As hypothesized, various manifestations of self-silencing were found to significantly mediate the relationship between the perceived obligation to manifest strength (a SBW characteristic) and depressive symptomatology. The present study advances the idea that depressive symptoms are related to endorsement of the SBW Schema and highlights self-silencing as a mechanism by which this relationship occurs. These results offer evidence and clarification of the impact of the SBW Schema on Black women’s mental health and identify specific points of intervention for mental health practitioners conducting therapeutic work with Black women. We provide recommendations for future research to avoid pathologizing strength and we discuss the implications and potential benefits of integrating a Womanist theoretical perspective into counseling for Black women, a population that has historically underutilized mental health resources.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abrams, J. A., Maxwell, M., Pope, M., & Belgrave, F. Z. (2014). Carrying the world with the grace of a lady and the grit of a warrior: Deepening our understanding of the “strong Black woman” schema. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 38(4), 503–518. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684314541418.
American Counseling Association. (2014). Code of ethics. Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119221555.part1.
American Psychological Association. (2016). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/ethics-code-2017.pdf.
Banks, J., & Xu, J. (2013). Self-silencing as a predictor of physical activity behavior. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 34(7), 505–513. https://doi.org/10.3109/01612840.2013.774076.
Beauboeuf-Lafontant, T. (2009). Behind the mask of the strong Black woman: Voice and the embodiment of a costly performance. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094306110380384d.
Beblo, T., Fernando, S., Klocke, S., Griepenstroh, J., Aschenbrenner, S., & Driessen, M. (2012). Increased suppression of negative and positive emotions in major depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 141(2), 474–479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2012.03.019.
Bem, S. L. (1981). Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing. Psychological Review, 88(4), 354–364. https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-295x.88.4.354.
Brody, D. J., Pratt, L. A., Hughes, J. P., & National Center for Health Statistics (U.S.). (2018). Prevalence of depression among adults aged 20 and over: United States, 2013–2016. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29638213.
Brown, C., Conner, K. O., Copeland, V. C., Grote, N., Beach, S., Battista, D., … Reynolds, C. (2010). Depression stigma, race, and treatment seeking behavior and attitudes. Journal of Community Psychology, 38(3), 350–368. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.20368.
Bryant-Davis, T. E., & Comas-Díaz, L. E. (2016). Womanist and mujerista psychologies: Voices of fire, acts of courage. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Centers for Disease Control. (2016). Summary health statistics: National Health Interview Survey: 2014. Table A-7. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/shs/tables.htm.
Cole, E. R. (2009). Intersectionality and research in psychology. American Psychologist, 64, 170–180. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014564.
Collins, P. (2005). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. New York: Routledge.
Danquah, M. N. (1998). Willow weep for me: A Black woman’s journey through depression. New York: Norton.
Donovan, R. A., & West, L. M. (2015). Stress and mental health: Moderating role of the strong Black woman stereotype. Journal of Black Psychology, 41(4), 384–396. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798417732414.
Griner, D., & Smith, T. B. (2006). Culturally adapted mental health interventions: A meta-analytic review. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 43, 531–548. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.43.4.531.
Harrington, E. F., Crowther, J. H., & Shipherd, J. C. (2010). Trauma, binge eating, and the “strong Black woman.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78, 469–479. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019174.
Harris-Lacewell, M. (2001). No place to rest: African American political attitudes and the myth of Black women’s strength. Women and Politics, 23, 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/1554477x.2001.9970965.
Hawkins, M. A. W., Miller, D. K., & Stewart, J. C. (2015). A 9-year, bidirectional prospective analysis of depressive symptoms and adiposity: The African American health study. Obesity, 23(1), 192–199. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.20893.
Hayes, A. F. (2012). PROCESS: A versatile computational tool for observed variable mediation, moderation, and conditional process modeling. Retrieved from http://www.afhayes.com/.
Jack, D. C. (2011). Reflections on the Silencing the Self Scale and its origins. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 35(3), 523–529. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684311414824.
Jack, D. C., & Ali, A. (2010). Silencing the self across cultures: Depression and gender in the social world. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jack, D. C., Ali, A., & Dias, S. (2014). Depression in multicultural populations. In F. T. L. Leong, L. Comas-Díaz, G. C. Nagayama Hall, V. C. McLoyd, & J. E. Trimble (Eds.), APA handbook of multicultural psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 267–287). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14187-000.
Jack, D. C., & Dill, D. (1992). The Silencing the Self Scale: Schemas of intimacy associated with depression in women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 16(1), 97–106. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1992.tb00242.x.
Jones, C., & Shorter-Gooden, K. (2003). Shifting: The double lives of Black women in America. New York: HarperCollins.
King, K. R. (2003). Do you see what I see? Effects of group consciousness on African American women's attributions to prejudice. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27(1), 17–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-6402.t01-2-00003.
Lewis, J. A., Mendenhall, R., Harwood, S. A., & Huntt, M. B. (2013). Coping with gendered racial microaggressions among Black women college students. Journal of African American Studies, 17(1), 51–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-012-9219-0.
Lindsay-Dennis, L. (2015). Black feminist-womanist research paradigm: Toward a culturally relevant research model focused on African American girls. Journal of Black Studies, 46(5), 506–520. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934715583664.
Neufeld, A., Harrison, M. J., Stewart, M., & Hughes, K. (2008). Advocacy of women family caregivers: Response to nonsupportive interactions with professionals. Qualitative Health Research, 18, 301–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732307313768.
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1(3), 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1177/014662167700100306.
Romero, R. E. (2000). The icon of the strong Black woman: The paradox of strength. In L. C. Jackson & B. Greene (Eds.), Psychotherapy with African American women: Innovations in psychodynamic perspectives and practice (pp. 225–238). New York: Guilford Press.
Sanchez-Hucles, J. V. (2016). Womanist therapy with Black women. In T. Bryant-Davis & L. Comas-Díaz (Eds.), Womanist and mujerista psychologies: Voices of fire, acts of courage (pp. 69–92). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association http://dx.doi.org.proxy.library.vcu.edu/10.1037/14937-004.
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2001). Using multivariate statistics (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Thomas, A. J., Witherspoon, K. M., & Speight, S. L. (2004). Toward the development of the Stereotypic Roles for Black Women Scale. Journal of Black Psychology, 30(3), 426–442. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798404266061.
Ward, E., & Brown, R. L. (2015). A culturally adapted depression intervention for African American adults experiencing depression: Oh happy day. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 85(1), 11–22. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000027.
Ward, E. C., & Heidrich, S. M. (2009). African American women’s beliefs about mental illness, stigma, and preferred coping behaviors. Research in Nursing & Health, 32(5), 480–492. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.20344.
Watson, N. N., & Hunter, C. D. (2015). Anxiety and depression among African American women: The costs of strength and negative attitudes toward psychological help-seeking. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 21(4), 604–612. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000015.
Watson-Singleton, N. (2017). Strong Black woman schema and psychological distress: The mediating role of perceived emotional support. Journal of Black Psychology, 43(8), 778–788. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798417732414.
Woods-Giscombé, C. L. (2010). Superwoman schema: African American women’s views on stress, strength, and health. Qualitative Health Research, 20, 668–683. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732310361892.
Acknowledgments
Research reported in the present manuscript was supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (5F31HL122118-02) and the National Institute of Mental Health (R25MH087217) of the National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest
The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
Research Involving Human Subjects
This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Virginia Commonwealth University and was conducted ethically according to the approved protocol.
Informed Consent
Written informed consent was obtained from all study participants.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Abrams, J.A., Hill, A. & Maxwell, M. Underneath the Mask of the Strong Black Woman Schema: Disentangling Influences of Strength and Self-Silencing on Depressive Symptoms among U.S. Black Women. Sex Roles 80, 517–526 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0956-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0956-y