Black Grief Matters: Undergraduate Students’ Experiences Grieving Police Murders of Black Americans

Abstract

Black Americans’ witnessing of online anti-Black police brutality is related to negative psychological outcomes, including stress and depressive symptoms. This study examined the degree to which grief disenfranchisement, social support, and coping style predicted stress, depressive symptoms, and prolonged grief among 189 Black undergraduate students grieving police murders of Black Americans. The students experienced moderate stress, elevated depressive symptoms, and low levels of prolonged grief, and coping style emerged as the most robust predictor of mental health outcomes. Specifically, planning, behavioral disengagement, and ritual-centered coping predicted variance in perceived stress. Additionally, behavioral disengagement explained variance in depressive symptoms; and disenfranchised grief, changes in goals, and collective-centered coping accounted for variance in prolonged grief. These findings may contribute to the development of interventions to support Black undergraduate students as they grieve police murders of Black Americans.

Keywords

Police brutality racism-related stress coping behavior mental health college students

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abrams

S. J

. (2020, November 25). Are students liberal? Yes–but not everywhere. RealClearEducation. https://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2020/11/25/are_students_liberal_yes__but_not_everywhere_110512.html

Bailey

Sharma

Jubin

(2013). The mediating role of social support, cognitive appraisal, and quality health care in Black mothers’ stress-resilience process following loss to gun violence. Violence and Victims, 28(2), 233–247. https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.11-00151

Bor

Venkataramani

A. S.

Williams

D. R.

Tsai

A. C.

(2018). Police killings and their spillover effects on the mental health of Black Americans: A population-based, quasi-experimental study. The Lancet, 392(10144), 302–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31130-9

Boyd-Franklin

(2010). Incorporating spirituality and religion into the treatment of African American clients. The Counseling Psychologist, 38(7), 976–1000. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000010374881

Bridges

(2011). Racial identity development and psychological coping strategies of African American males at a predominantly White university. Journal of African American Males in Education, 2(2), 149–167. https://jaamejournal.scholasticahq.com/article/18418-racial-identity-development-and-psychological-coping-strategies-of-undergraduate-and-graduate-african-american-males

Buchanan

N. T.

Perez

Prinstein

M. J.

Thurston

I. B.

(2021). Upending racism in psychological science: Strategies to change how science is conducted, reported, reviewed, and disseminated. American Psychologist, 76(7), 1097–1112. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000905

Burk

(2018). Observer effect: Insights for building equitable community-research partnerships. Journal of Family Violence, 33(8), 515–519. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-018-9992-1

Burke

L. A.

Neimeyer

R. A.

McDevitt-Murphy

M. E.

(2010). African American homicide bereavement: Aspects of social support that predict complicated grief, PTSD, and depression. Omega: Journal of Death And Dying, 61(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.2190/OM.61.1.a

Campaign Zero . (2022, March 31). Mapping police violence. https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/

10.

Campbell

Valera

(2020). “The only thing new is the cameras”: A study of U.S. college students’ perceptions of police violence on social media. Journal of Black Studies, 51(7), 654–670. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934720935600

11.

Carver

C. S.

(1997). You want to measure coping but your protocol’s too long: Consider the brief cope. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4(1), 92–100. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327558ijbm0401_6

12.

Carver

C. S.

(2014). Active coping. In Michalos

A. C.

(Eds.) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_17

13.

Cavalhieri

K. E.

Greer

T. M.

Hawkins

Choi

Hardy

Heavner

(2023, March 9). The effects of online and institutional racism on the mental health of African Americans. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000585

14.

Clark

Anderson

N. B.

Clark

V. R.

Williams

D. R.

(1999). Racism as a stressor for African Americans: A biopsychosocial model. American Psychologist, 54(10), 805–816. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.10.805

15.

Cohen

Kamarck

Mermelstein

(1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385–396. https://doi.org/10.2307/2136404

16.

Crenshaw

K. W.

Ritchie

A. J.

Anspach

Gilmer

Harris

(2015). Say her name: Resisting police brutality against Black women. https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/3226/

17.

Doka

(1989). Disenfranchised grief. In Doka

Kenneth

(Ed.), Disenfranchised grief: Recognizing hidden sorrow (pp. 3–11). Lexington Books.

18.

Eichstaedt

J. C.

Sherman

G. T.

Giorgi

Roberts

S. O.

Reynolds

M. E.

Ungar

L. H.

Guntuku

S. C.

(2021). The emotional and mental health impact of the murder of George Floyd on the US population. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(39), e2109139118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109139118

19.

Elvira de la Morena

M. J.

Cruzado

J. A.

(2013). Caregivers of patients with disorders of consciousness: Coping and prolonged grief. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, 127(6), 413–418. https://doi.org/10.1111/ane.12061

20.

Faul

Erdfelder

Buchner

Lang

A.-G.

(2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 1149–1160. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.4.1149

21.

Folkman

Lazarus

R. S.

Dunkel-Schetter

DeLongis

Gruen

R. J.

(1986a). Dynamics of a stressful encounter: Cognitive appraisal, coping, and encounter outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50(5), 992–1003. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.50.5.992

22.

Folkman

Lazarus

R. S.

Gruen

R. J.

DeLongis

(1986b). Appraisal, coping, health status, and psychological symptoms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50(3), 571–579. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.50.3.571

23.

Fox-Williams

B. N.

(2019). The rules of (dis)engagement: Black youth and their strategies for navigating police contact. Sociological Forum, 34(1), 115–137. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12484

24.

French

B. H.

Lewis

J. A.

Mosley

D. V.

Adames

H. Y.

Chavez-Dueñas

N. Y.

Chen

G. A.

Neville

H. A.

(2020). Toward a psychological framework of radical healing in communities of color. The Counseling Psychologist, 48(1), 14–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000019843506

25.

Fricker

(2017). Evolving concepts of epistemic injustice. In Kidd

I. J.

Medina

Pohlhaus

(Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice (1st ed., pp. 53–60). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315212043-5

26.

Gan

Guo

Tong

(2013). Scale development of meaning-focused coping. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 18(1), 10–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2012.678780

27.

Giangrasso

Casale

(2014). Psychometric properties of the Medical Outcome Study Social Support Survey with a general population sample of undergraduate students. Social Indicators Research, 116(1), 185–197. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0277-z

28.

Goldsmith

Morrison

R. S.

Vanderwerker

L. C.

Prigerson

H. G.

(2008). Elevated rates of prolonged grief disorder in African Americans. Death Studies, 32(4), 352–365. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481180801929012

29.

Granek

Peleg-Sagy

(2017). The use of pathological grief outcomes in bereavement studies on African Americans. Transcultural Psychiatry, 54(3), 384–399. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461517708121

30.

Greer

T. M.

Brown

(2011). Minority status stress and coping processes among African American college students. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 4(1), 26–38. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021267

31.

Gregory

V. L.

Jr. Tucker Edmonds

J. L.

(2022). The racial pandemic experienced by Black American men: Cognitive–behavioral and structural implications. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 93(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000651

32.

Grills

C. N.

Aird

E. G.

Rowe

(2016). Breathe, baby, breathe: Clearing the way for the emotional emancipation of Black people. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 16(3), 333–343. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708616634839

33.

Hanson

(2022, January 22). College enrollment & student demographic statistics. Education Data Initiative. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://educationdata.org/college-enrollment-statistics

34.

Hargons

Mosley

Falconer

Faloughi

Singh

Stevens-Watkins

Cokley

(2017). Black Lives Matter: A call to action for counseling psychology leaders. The Counseling Psychologist, 45(6), 873–901. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000017733048

35.

Harrell

S. P.

(2000). A multidimensional conceptualization of racism-related stress: Implications for the well-being of people of color. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 70(1), 42–57. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0087722

36.

Hawkins

D. S.

(2022). “After Philando, I had to take a sick day to recover”: Psychological distress, trauma and police brutality in the Black community. Health Communication, 37(9), 1113–1122. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2021.1913838

37.

Jacob

Faber

S. C.

Faber

Bartlett

Ouimet

A. J.

Williams

M. T.

(2023). A systematic review of Black people coping with racism: Approaches, analysis, and empowerment. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(2), 392–415. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221100509

38.

Kato

(2015). Frequently used coping scales: A meta-analysis. Stress & Health, 31(4), 315–323. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2557

39.

Keller

A. O.

(2021). A healthy life for African American women caregivers: A concept mapping study. Women's Health Issues, 31(2), 130–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.whi.2020.11.011

40.

Laurie

Neimeyer

R. A.

(2008). African Americans in bereavement: Grief as a function of ethnicity. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 57(2), 173–193. https://doi.org/10.2190/OM.57.2.d

41.

Lazarus

R. S.

Folkman

(1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer.

42.

Lindsey

M. A.

Irsheid

Nebbitt

V. E.

(2017). Psychometric properties of the CES-D among Black adolescents in public housing. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 8(4), 595–619. https://doi.org/10.1086/694791

43.

Makhubela

(2022). Assessing psychological stress in South African university students: Measurement validity of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) in diverse populations. Current Psychology: A Journal for Diverse Perspectives on Diverse Psychological Issues, 41(5), 2802–2809. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00784-3

44.

Moore

S. E.

Jones-Eversley

S. D.

Tolliver

W. F.

Wilson

Harmon

D. K.

(2020). Cultural responses to loss and grief among Black Americans: Theory and practice implications for clinicians. Death Studies, 46(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1725930

45.

Mosley

D. V.

Hargons

C. N.

Meiller

Angyal

Wheeler

Davis

Stevens-Watkins

(2021). Critical consciousness of anti-Black racism: A practical model to prevent and resist racial trauma. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 68(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000430

46.

Muhammad

Wallerstein

Sussman

A. L.

Avila

Belone

Duran

(2015). Reflections on researcher identity and power: The impact of positionality on community based participatory research (CBPR) processes and outcomes. Critical Sociology, 41(7–8), 1045–1063. https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920513516025

47.

O’Brien

K. M.

Jankauskaite

Yoo

S. K.

Bang

Yoon

Yang

N. Y.

(2023). Grief counseling in Korea and the US: An innovative online intervention for therapists and students. Poster presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., United States.

48.

Peters

R. M.

Solberg

M. A.

Templin

T. N.

Cassidy-Bushrow

A. E.

(2020). Psychometric properties of the Brief COPE among pregnant African American women. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 42(11), 927–936. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945920907686

49.

Pew Research Center . (2021, April 7). Demographics of social media users and adoption in the United States. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Technology. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/

50.

Piazza-Bonin

Neimeyer

R. A.

Burke

L. A.

McDevitt-Murphy

M. E.

Young

(2015). Disenfranchised grief following African American homicide loss: An inductive case study. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 70(4), 404–427. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222815573727

51.

Pieterse

A. L.

Todd

N. R.

Neville

H. A.

Carter

R. T.

(2012). Perceived racism and mental health among Black American adults: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 59(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026208

52.

Prigerson

H. G.

Boelen

P. A.

Smith

K. V.

Maciejewski

P. K.

(2021). Validation of the new DSM-5-TR criteria for prolonged grief disorder and the PG-13-Revised (PG-13-R) scale. World Psychiatry: Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 20(1), 96–106. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20823

53.

Radloff

L. S.

(1977). The CES-D Scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1(3), 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1177/014662167700100306

54.

Roberts

D. E.

(2021). Race. In Hannah-Jones

Roper

Silverman

Silverstein

(Eds.), The 1619 project: A new origin story (pp. 45–61). Penguin Random House LLC.

55.

Sherbourne

C. D.

Stewart

A. L.

(1991). The MOS Social Support Survey. Social Science & Medicine, 32(6), 705–714. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(91)90150-b

56.

Smith Lee

J. R.

Robinson

M. A.

(2019). “That’s my number one fear in life. It’s the police”: Examining young Black men’s exposures to trauma and loss resulting from police violence and police killings. Journal of Black Psychology, 45(3), 143–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798419865152

57.

St Clair

J. S.

(2013). The witnessing of disenfranchised grief: Reliability and validity. Journal of Nursing Measurement, 21(3), 401–414. https://doi.org/10.1891/1061-3749.21.3.401

58.

Staggers-Hakim

(2016). The nation’s unprotected children and the ghost of Mike Brown, or the impact of national police killings on the health and social development of African American boys. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 26(3–4), 390–399. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2015.1132864

59.

Tamir

Budiman

Noe-Bustamante

Mora

(2022, November 22). Facts about the U.S. Black population. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/fact-sheet/facts-about-the-us-black-population

60.

Tynes

B. M.

Willis

H. A.

Stewart

A. M.

Hamilton

M. W.

(2019). Race-related traumatic events online and mental health among adolescents of color. Journal of Adolescent Health, 65(3), 371–377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.03.006

61.

Utsey

S. O.

Adams

E. P.

Bolden

(2000). Development and initial validation of the Africultural Coping Systems Inventory. Journal of Black Psychology, 26(2), 194–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798400026002005

62.

Wilson

B. L.

Wolfer

T. A.

Wooten

N. R.

Pitner

Moore

S. E.

Anders

A. D.

(2023). “Am I next?”: A qualitative study of Black college students’ experiences of stress, trauma, and grief from exposures to police killings. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2023.2173353

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.46 MB