TY - JOUR
T1 - Superwoman schema
T2 - uncovering repercussions of coping strategies used among Black women at high risk for HIV
AU - McDaniel, Gabrielle
AU - Akinwunmi, Shalom
AU - Brenya, Velta
AU - Kidane, Heran
AU - Nydegger, Liesl
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - The Superwomen Schema (SWS) describes a social framework that encompasses the role that many Black women adopt in response to chronic stress, financial pressures, and an intersection of oppression. Woods-Giscombé (Superwoman Schema: African American Women’s Views on Stress, Strength, and Health. Qualitative Health Research 20 (5): 668–683, 2010) characterizes SWS using five tenets: obligation to manifest strength, obligation to suppress emotions, resistance to vulnerability or dependency, determination to succeed despite a lack of resources, and an obligation to help others. The goal of this study is to determine the connection between SWS among Black women and substance use as a means of maintaining mental health, garnering resilience, and coping with external pressures. We aimed to highlight systemic and infrastructural racism and prejudice and how they relate, not only to the adoption of SWS, but also how they may contribute to substance use. This study is a secondary analysis of a larger study on HIV prevention Black and Latine women at high risk for HIV. Only Black participants (n = 10) were included in this secondary analysis. The interviews were conducted 3 times across 3 months. Interviews were coded and analyzed using thematic content analysis in NVivo. Themes of undiagnosed mental health symptoms, medical mistrust, institutional distrust, and aversion to help-seeking were recurrent in our data. Our research confirmed and assessed dual repercussions of SWS among Black women both as a defense that granted resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds and as a construct that encouraged substance use as a coping mechanism for compromised mental health. This study contextualized this subset of coping and substance use to address and dismantle systemic contributors.
AB - The Superwomen Schema (SWS) describes a social framework that encompasses the role that many Black women adopt in response to chronic stress, financial pressures, and an intersection of oppression. Woods-Giscombé (Superwoman Schema: African American Women’s Views on Stress, Strength, and Health. Qualitative Health Research 20 (5): 668–683, 2010) characterizes SWS using five tenets: obligation to manifest strength, obligation to suppress emotions, resistance to vulnerability or dependency, determination to succeed despite a lack of resources, and an obligation to help others. The goal of this study is to determine the connection between SWS among Black women and substance use as a means of maintaining mental health, garnering resilience, and coping with external pressures. We aimed to highlight systemic and infrastructural racism and prejudice and how they relate, not only to the adoption of SWS, but also how they may contribute to substance use. This study is a secondary analysis of a larger study on HIV prevention Black and Latine women at high risk for HIV. Only Black participants (n = 10) were included in this secondary analysis. The interviews were conducted 3 times across 3 months. Interviews were coded and analyzed using thematic content analysis in NVivo. Themes of undiagnosed mental health symptoms, medical mistrust, institutional distrust, and aversion to help-seeking were recurrent in our data. Our research confirmed and assessed dual repercussions of SWS among Black women both as a defense that granted resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds and as a construct that encouraged substance use as a coping mechanism for compromised mental health. This study contextualized this subset of coping and substance use to address and dismantle systemic contributors.
KW - Black women
KW - Superwoman schema
KW - racism
KW - resilience
KW - substance use
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85149287326&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85149287326&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13557858.2023.2179570
DO - 10.1080/13557858.2023.2179570
M3 - Article
C2 - 36824000
AN - SCOPUS:85149287326
SN - 1355-7858
VL - 28
SP - 874
EP - 894
JO - Ethnicity and Health
JF - Ethnicity and Health
IS - 6
ER -