Black Girl Blues: The Roles of Racial Socialization, Gendered Racial Socialization, and Racial Identity on Depressive Sy
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EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
Black Girl Blues: The Roles of Racial Socialization, Gendered Racial Socialization, and Racial Identity on Depressive Symptoms among Black Girls McKenzie N. Stokes
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Elan C. Hope1 Qiana R. Cryer-Coupet1 erin elliot2 ●
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Received: 1 July 2020 / Accepted: 5 September 2020 / Published online: 21 September 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Racial socialization is an important predictor of wellbeing among Black youth. Scholars have theorized that Black girls could benefit from gendered racial socialization or messages about being Black girls. However, this has not been examined empirically. The current study investigates the role of general and gendered racial socialization and racial identity attitudes on depressive symptoms among 287 Black girls between the ages of 13–17 (Mage = 15.4) in the U.S. Path analysis results demonstrated that general and gendered racial socialization about pride were directly associated with positive feelings about being Black which were negatively associated with depressive symptoms. Oppressive messages about Black women were related to negative feelings about being Black and more depressive symptoms. The implications of general and gendered racial socialization on the psychological wellbeing of Black girls are discussed. Keywords
Adolescence Black girls Depression Gender Racial identity Racial socialization ●
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Introduction National data suggest that nearly half of all Black adolescent girls in the United States report experiencing severe and persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, which are consistent with symptoms of depression (Kann et al. 2018). Black girls were also the most likely to report attempting suicide in 2017 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2017). Consequently, there is an urgent need for research that examines mechanisms that can reduce the risk of psychological distress among Black girls during the critical developmental period of adolescence. Racial socialization, or the ways in which Black parents teach their children about their race, is one strategy that has been used to promote wellbeing among adolescents (Umaña‐Taylor
Supplementary information The online version of this article (https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01317-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * McKenzie N. Stokes [email protected] 1
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
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University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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and Hill 2020). Racial socialization that is gendered may be even more beneficial for Black girls as it targets their intersecting identities, but this has not yet been examined. This study begins to address this gap by comparing the impact of general and gendered racial socialization on two psychosocial outcomes among Black girls—racial identity (i.e., the importance and meaning of race to a person’s selfconcept) and depressive symptoms (see Fig. 1).
The Sociohistorical Integrative Model and Intersec
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