Living in between: A Grounded Theory Study of Depression Among Middle-Class Black Women

Background and Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how middle-class Black women construct, interpret and create meaning regarding their experiences with depression and how their meanings of depression are informed by their broader sociocultural contexts. Within the mental health literature, the vast majority of depression research focuses on low-income Black women and middle-class White women. Rarely do studies privilege the voices or explore depression among middle-class Black women. Research has shown that social class is an important factor in life. Studies also provide some evidence for the “diminishing returns” hypothesis; as education levels increased, Blacks do not have the same improvement in self-reported mental health as White adults. Empirical evidence further indicates that there is incongruity between middle-class Blacks achievements and their lived experiences.

Methods: Thirty in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Black women between the ages of 30-45 who self-reported having had experiences with depression and middle-class status based on their education level, income, and occupation. Women were recruited using a mix of the following strategies: participant driven sampling methods (i.e., snowball sampling), social media outlets such as Facebook, emailing flyers to various social groups that predominantly served middle-class Black women (e.g., Black female sororities and Black female professional organizations), and posting flyers throughout primarily Black communities and businesses that served a large proportion of middle-class Black women. Interviews focused on questions that elicited the women’s views on how they created meaning regarding their experiences with depression and how their meanings of depression were informed by their broader sociocultural contexts. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed and coded using the constant comparative method of grounded theory.

Findings: Findings reveal that middle-class Black women’s experiences with depression focused on the tenuous position of their racial identity, gender identity, and middle-class status despite their improved life chances based on their class standing. Simply put, nearly all the stories the women shared highlighted the ways that they had to move between their social identities (e.g. Black, female, and middle-class living) and reflected how they navigated their social identities in various contexts. This experience was characterized as “Living Between.” Living in between had four dimensions: (1) shifting and code switching, (2) being forced to choose, (3) wrestling with tension, and (4) straddling multiple worlds and statuses. Combined, these four core categories formed the meanings middle-class Black women associated with their depression experiences.  

Conclusion and Implications: Depression and middle class Black women is a neglected topic. Results of this study suggest that middle-class Black women is a unique group, existing at the intersections of a number of incongruent status positions in the social hierarchy. Findings also suggest the need for further investigations by social work researchers that explore the unique ways in which race, gender. and class intersect and remain salient in the lives of middle-class Black women.