It's Tough Being a Woman: The Psychosocial Impact of Intergenerational Stress and Coping

Epidemiological researchers have found that African American women experience greater morbidity and mortality at younger ages from stress and stress-related diseases than their European American counterparts (Schulz, Israel, Williams, Parker, Becker, & James, 2000). Published research with African American children suggests that the influence of maternal support on child coping varies by gender. In particular, “African American girls face unique challenges in identity development, and African American mothers have the unique task of preparing their daughters to face racism and sexism” (Thomas & King, 2007, p. 137). Although there is a growing body of research on African American women and their experiences of stress and coping, there are few studies that address how these women socialize their daughters to racism and stress, and what coping strategies mothers employ and impart (Author, 2015). This study examined intergenerational stress and coping among Black mothers and daughters.

      Convenience and snowball sampling methods were used to recruit a sample of n=168, (90 mothers and 78 daughters) self-identified, African American or Black women 18-72 years old. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire that solicited descriptive information. The researchers conducted face to face interviews which lasted 45-60 minutes. Participants responded to questions about their relationship with their mother or daughter, how they communicated when they were growing up, and what lessons they learned from their mother about how to solve problems and cope.

       Audio and videotapes of the interviews were transcribed verbatim, masking names of the participants and names of individuals that were mentioned. Each transcript was read in its entirety, manually marking distinct comments that were believed to represent discrete thoughts or themes. The researchers met to adjudicate minor differences in choices of themes and where the relevant comments began and ended. The resulting comments were separated into categories with thematic labels based on the actual words used by the participants. These categories were used to develop a final taxonomy of relevant themes.

      The majority of the participants were single and held bachelor’s degrees. The median age for daughters was < 23 years old and < 47 for mothers. The sample included eighteen grandmothers and or great grandmothers ages 65-72. The median annual income was >$26,000. Analysis of the data revealed three major themes with four subcategories: a) dimensions of stress, b) acute-chronic stressors (racism, colorism, sexism, and health distress and or problems), and, c) coping strategies (e.g. reliance on prayer and church attendance, self-care, and psychotherapy). Participants also reported that each coping response came with certain consequences, including poor health outcomes, psychological distress, and strained familial relationships.

       The results from the study indicate that participants learned positive coping strategies when they confronted racism and sexism. The women agreed that observing how their mothers coped with failure demonstrated strength. The results from this study has clearly shown that Black women oftentimes carry the burden of socializing their daughters about stress management. It is important that social work practitioners should help Black women identify adaptive coping strategies that will enable them to manage sexism and racism.