Across varied disciplines, attempts have been made to capture the multidimensionality of Black womanhood under a unifying framework illustrative of Black women’s perceived roles, responsibilities, and experiences of intersectional oppression. The result has been the emergence of a number of divergent but overlapping constructs (e.g., Superwoman Schema, Sojourner Truth Syndrome, Sisterella Complex, and Strong Black Woman [SBW] Schema). The goal of our study is to integrate overlapping attributes of existing constructs beneath a single term while also expounding upon the defining characteristics of the SBW Schema. Thematic analyses were conducted with data gathered from eight focus groups with 44 Black women from the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Women ranged in age from 18 to 91 and were diverse in religious and educational backgrounds. Data analysis involved iterative processes (i.e., continuous development of new codes and constant comparison of themes). Prominent themes identified as characteristics of the SBW Schema were (a) Embodies and Displays Multiple Forms of Strength, (b) Possesses Self/Ethnic Pride in Spite of Intersectional Oppression, (c) Embraces Being Every Woman, and (d) Anchored by Religion/Spirituality. Mental and physical health outcomes (e.g., psychological distress, depressive symptomology, obesity, and cardiovascular disease risk) associated with characteristics of the SBW Schema underscore the importance of the construct and its exploration.
AndersonC. (1994). Black labor, White wealth: The search for power and economic justice. Edgewood, MD: Duncan & Duncan.
2.
BaschC. E. (1987). Focus group interview: An underutilized research technique for improving theory and practice in health education. Health Education Quarterly, 14, 411–448.
3.
BeaganB. L.EtowaJ.BernardW. T. (2012). With God in our lives he gives us the strength to carry on: African Nova Scotian women, spirituality, and racism-related stress. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 15, 103–120.
4.
Beauboeuf-LafontantT. (2003). Strong and large Black women? Exploring relationships between deviant womanhood and weight. Gender and Society, 17, 111–121.
5.
Beauboeuf-LafontantT. (2007). You have to show strength: An exploration of gender, race, and depression. Gender and Society, 21, 28–51.
6.
Beauboeuf-LafontantT. (2009). Behind the mask of the strong Black woman: Voice and the embodiment of a costly performance. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
7.
BlackA. (2008). Strength, resilience, and survivorship: A content analysis of life management strategies as reflected in African American women’s magazines. Poster presented at the National Institutes of Health Summit: The Science of Eliminating Health Disparities, National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Harbor, MD.
8.
BlackA. R.PeacockN. (2011). Pleasing the masses: Messages for daily life management in African American women's popular media sources. American Journal of Public Health, 101, 144–150.
9.
BlackA. R.Woods-GiscombéC. (2012). Applying the stress and ‘strength’ hypothesis to Black women's breast cancer screening delays. Stress and Health, 28, 389–396.
10.
BraunV.ClarkeV. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 77–101.
11.
BrookJ. S.PahlK. (2005). The protective role of ethnic and racial identity and aspects of an Africentric orientation against drug use among African American young adults. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 166, 329–345.
12.
BrooksD. A. (2008). “All that you can’t leave behind”: Black female soul singing and the politics of surrogation in the age of catastrophe. Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 8, 180–204.
13.
BurrellG.MorganG. (1979). Sociological paradigms and organizational analysis. Aldersthot, England: Ashgate.
14.
CollinsP. H. (1990). Toward an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. In CollinsP. H. (Ed.), Black feminist thought (pp. 201–220). Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman.
15.
CollinsP. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge.
16.
CollinsP. H. (2005). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. New York, NY: Routledge.
17.
CreswellJ. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
18.
DavisC.SloanM.TangC. (2011). Role occupancy, quality, and psychological distress among Caucasian and African American women. Affilia, 26, 72–82.
19.
DyrbyeL. N.PowerD. V.MassieF. S.EackerA.HarperW.ThomasM. R.…ShanafeltT. D. (2010). Factors associated with resilience to and recovery from burnout: A prospective, multi-institutional study of US medical students. Medical Education, 44, 1016–1026.
20.
FarberE. W.SchwartzJ. A. J.SchaperP. E.MoonenD. E. J.McDanielJ. S. (2000). Resilience factors associated with adaptation to HIV disease. Psychosomatics, 41, 140–146.
21.
FiskeS. T. (2010). Social beings: Core motives in social psychology. Honoken, NJ: John Wiley.
22.
GaribaldiA. M. (2007). The educational status of African American males in the 21st century. Journal of Negro Education, 76, 324–333.
23.
GhavamiN.FingerhutA.PeplauL. A.GrantS. K.WittigM. A. (2011). Testing a model of minority identity achievement, identity affirmation, and psychological well-being among ethnic minority and sexual minority individuals. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 17, 79–88.
24.
GoodwinP. Y.MosherW. D.ChandraA. (2010). Marriage and cohabitation in the United States: A statistical portrait based on Cycle 6 (2002) of the National Survey of Family Growth. Vital and Health Statistics, 23. Retrieved fromhttp://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_028.pdf
25.
Hamilton-MasonJ.HallJ. C.EveretteJ. E. (2009). And some of us are braver: Stress and coping among African American women. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 19, 463–482.
26.
HarringtonE. F.ShipherdJ. C.CrowtherJ. H. (2010). Trauma, binge eating, and the “Strong Black Woman.”Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78, 469–479.
27.
Harris-LacewellM. (2001). No place to rest: African American political attitudes and the myth of Black women's strength. Women and Politics, 23, 1–34.
28.
HenryW. J.WestN. M.JacksonA. (2010). Hip-Hops influence on the identity development of Black female college students: A literature review. Journal of College Student Development, 51, 237–251.
29.
HunterC. D.JosephN. (2010). Racial group identification and its relations to individualism/interdependence and race-related stress in African Americans. Journal of Black Psychology, 36, 483–511.
30.
JonesC.Shorter-GoodenK. (2003). Shifting: The double lives of Black women in America. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
31.
JonesJ. (1982). My mother was much of a woman: Black women, work, and the family under slavery. Feminist Studies, 8, 235–269.
32.
KasenS.WickramaratneP.GameroffM. J.WeissmanM. M. (2012). Religiosity and resilience in persons at high risk for major depression. Psychological Medicine, 42, 509–519.
33.
KerriganD.AndrinopoulosK.JohnsonR.ParhamP.ThomasT.EllenJ. M. (2007). Staying strong: Gender ideologies among African-American adolescents and the implications for HIV/STI prevention. Journal of Sex Research, 44, 172–180.
34.
KitzingerJ.BarbourR. S. (1999). Developing focus group research: Politics, theory, and practice. London, England: Sage.
LevinJ.ChattersL. M.TaylorR. J. (2005). Religion, health and medicine in African Americans: Implications for physicians. Journal of the National Medical Association, 97, 237–249.
37.
LewisA. (1992). Group child interviews as a research tool. British Educational Research Journal, 18, 413–421.
38.
LinvilleP. W. (1985). Self-complexity and affective extremity: Don’t put all of your eggs in one cognitive basket. Social Cognition, 3, 94–120.
39.
MattisJ. S. (2002). Religion and spirituality in the meaning-making and coping experiences of African American women: A qualitative analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26, 309–321.
40.
McConnellA. R.RenaudJ. M.DeanK. K.GreenS. P.LamoreauxM. J.HallC. E.RydellR. J. (2005). Whose self is it anyway? Self aspect control moderates the relation between self-complexity and well-being. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 1–18.
41.
MullingsL. (2000). African-American women making themselves: Notes on the role of Black feminist research. Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, 2, 18–29.
42.
MullingsL. (2006). Resistance and resilience: The Sojourner syndrome and the social context of reproduction in Central Harlem. In SchulzA. J.MullingsL. (Eds.), Gender, race, class, and health (pp. 345–370). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
O’ConnorM. K. (2001). Using qualitative research in practice evaluation. In RobertsA. R.GreeneG. J. (Eds.), Social workers’ desk reference (pp. 775–778). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
45.
ParksS. (2010). Fierce angels: The strong Black woman in American life and culture. New York, NY: One World/Ballantine Books.
46.
PierreM. R.MahalikJ. R. (2005). Examining African self-consciousness and Black racial identity as predictors of Black men's psychological well-being. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 11, 28–40.
47.
PinkneyA. (1976). Red, black, and green: Black nationalism in the United States. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
48.
RomeroR. E. (2000). The icon of the strong Black woman: The paradox of strength. In JacksonL. C.GreeneB. (Eds.), Psychotherapy with African American women: Innovations in psychodynamic perspectives and practice (pp. 225–238). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
49.
RowlesJ.DuanC. (2012). Perceived racism and encouragement among African American adults. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 40, 11–23.
50.
SampsonR. (1995). Unemployment and imbalanced sex ratios. In TuckerB.Mitchell-KernanC. (Eds.), The decline in marriage among African-Americans (pp. 229–254). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
51.
SchieleJ. H. (2005). Cultural oppression and the high-risk status of African Americans. Journal of Black Studies, 35, 802–826.
SettlesI. H.NavarreteC. D.PaganoS. J.AbdouC. M.SidaniusJ. (2010). Racial identity and depression among African American women. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 16, 248–255.
54.
StaplesR.JohnsonL. B. (1993). Black families at the crossroads: Challenges and prospects. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
55.
TaylorR. J.ChattersL. M.LevinJ. (2004). Religion in the lives of African Americans: Social, psychological and health perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
56.
TestaM.KroghM. (1995). The Effects of employment on marriage among Black males in inner–city Chicago. In TuckerB.Mitchell-KernanC. (Eds.), The decline in marriage among African Americans (pp. 59–95). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
57.
ThomasA.KingC. (2007). Gendered racial socialization of African American mothers and daughters. The Family Journal, 15, 137–142.
58.
ThomasA. J.WitherspoonK. M.SpeightS. L. (2004). Toward the development of the stereotypic roles for Black women scale. The Journal of Black Psychology, 30, 426–442.
59.
TravisJ.WaulM. (2003). Prisoners once removed: The children and families of prisoners. In TravisJ.WaulM. (Eds.), Prisoners once removed: The impact of incarceration and reentry on children, families, and communities (pp. 1–29). Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press.
60.
TwengeJ. M.CrockerJ. (2002). Race and self-esteem: Meta-analyses comparing Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians and comment on Gray-Little and Hafdahl (2000). Psychological Bulletin, 128, 371–408.
61.
WallaceM. (1990). Black macho and the myth of the superwoman. London, England: Verso.
62.
WallaceD. M. (2007). “It’s a M-A-N Thang”: Black male gender role socialization and the performance of masculinity in love relationships. The Journal of Pan African Studies, 1, 11–22.
63.
WesternB. (2002). The impact of incarceration on wage mobility and inequality. American Sociological Review, 67, 526–546.
64.
WhiteheadJ.McNiffJ. (2006). Action research: Living theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
65.
WilliamsS. H.CashionA. (2008). Negative affectivity and cardiovascular disease in African American single mothers. The Abnf Journal: Official Journal of the Association of Black Nursing Faculty in Higher Education, Inc, 19, 64–67.
66.
Woods-GiscombéC. L. (2010). Superwoman schema: African American women’s views on stress, strength, and health. Qualitative Health Research, 20, 668–683.
67.
Woods-GiscombéC. L.BlackA. R. (2010). Mind-body interventions to reduce risk for health disparities related to stress and strength among African American women: The potential of mindfulness-based stress reduction, loving-kindness, and the NTU therapeutic framework. Complementary Health Practice Review, 15, 115–131.
68.
WrightD. R. (2000). African Americans in the colonial era: From African origins through the American Revolution. Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson.
69.
YoungR. J. (1996). Antebellum Black activists: Race, gender, and self. New York, NY: Garland.
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.
