The Audacity of Hope: Middle-Class Black Women's Perspectives on Depression and Hope

Background: The purpose of this study is to explore middle-class Black women’s perspectives on depression and hope. 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 and hope 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 increase, Blacks do not have the same improvement in self-reported mental health as White adults. In fact, Blacks have worse mental health outcomes because of increased opportunities for exposure to discrimination. Consequently, they are less likely to seek treatment and when they do seek treatment they are misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed. Thus, there is a gap in our understanding about depression among middle-class Black women and how they remain hopeful despite the challenges they endure in society. 

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 depression and hope in relation to their social identities. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed and coded using the constant comparative method of grounded theory.

Findings: Findings elucidate middle-class Black women’s experiences with depression and hope that extends beyond a deficit narrative. Nearly all stories the women shared highlighted the various ways that their perspectives on depression and hope intersected with them being Black, female, and middle-class. Their experience was characterized as “The Audacity of Hope.” The audacity of hope had four dimensions: (a) staying the course (i.e., moving forward despite the difficulties they faced), (b) creating our own narratives (i.e., developing and sharing stories from their own experiences and perspectives), (c) God will provide, and (d) trusting one another (i.e., building and maintaining positive and authentic relationships with other middle-class Black women). Collectively, these four core categories informed the perspectives middle-class Black women associated with depression and hope, which was ultimately situated at the intersection of their sociocultural contexts.   

Conclusion and Implications: Depression and middle-class Black women is a neglected topic. Results of this study suggest that despite this group of women’s experiences with depression they remained hopeful and employed culturally specific ways to help them heal. 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.