Toward a More Culturally Specific Understanding of Maternal Mental Health Disparities Among African American Mothers with Young Children

Background: Aligning with the conference theme, this paper underscores the need to incorporate culturally specific conceptual and theoretical models in mental health research to examine persistent racial mental health disparities. Findings from recent studies suggest that African American mothers with young children are more likely to report mental health symptoms while also being least likely to use formal mental health services. Service underutilization has been problematized in the national discourse on maternal mental health help-seeking, access to services, and service use. To gain more culturally relevant understandings of the state of mental health and disparities, an African centered framework was used to critically analyze the way that supports and mental health among African American mothers with young children are examined in recent studies.

Methods: Four bibliographic databases were searched to identify studies published from [2008] to [2018] using the same keyword combinations. Relevant studies were reviewed and the study findings were critically analyzed.

Results: Notably, there are very few African centered theoretical or conceptual models represented in studies that include predominately African American samples. Beyond that, there were several broad methodological considerations that emerge from the literature. The topics covered include: operationalization of mental health, measurement of supports, mixed findings, and unexplored topics.

Conclusion/Implications: This paper reveals gaps in the current body of literature that emerge when using a culturally specific frame. The lack of African centered theory is one area that likely impacts the inclusion of culturally relevant constructs. Measures that included constructs such as such as support across settings, spirituality, and the perception of racism were rarely utilized. Subsequently, this limits the descriptive, explanatory, and predictive power of existing studies in this area of research. African centered framing, such as the Afrocentric social work framework directs attention to the historical, political, social, and cultural context that shapes the social problem—disproportionate maternal mental health concerns and service use patterns among African American mothers. Cultural oppression, a product of Eurocentric hegemony is implied when we (1) isolate maternal mental health and do not consider distal factors and (2) privilege formal service use to address maternal mental health concerns or early signs of distress. Recommendations for future research, specifically regarding incorporating culturally relevant constructs and contexts in social work research with African American mothers, are shared.