Coping with Depression in Single Black Mothers

Abstract

Very little information exists in the literature about what black women do when they experience symptoms of depression. The purpose of this descriptive study was to analyze the responses of 208 community-residing black single mothers, aged 18 to 45, to an open-ended question asking, “What do you do to feel better when you are feeling down in the dumps?” The theoretical bases of the Ways of Coping Checklist, were used to facilitate categorizing their responses into a coping scale and then a particular coping profile. Percentages were used to categorize the frequency of the responses into the respective coping scale and to categorize the frequency of the combined responses of each woman into a respective coping profile. Of the 333 responses that the women provided, 327 were useable. Findings indicated that a majority of responses fell into the Escape-Avoidance category (n = 206; 63%), followed by the Seeking Social Support (n = 60, 18.3%), Positive Reappraisal (n = 40; 12.2%), Planful Problem Solving (n = 12; 3.7%), Distancing (n = 3; 1%), and Self-Controlling (n = 6; 1.8%) categories. No responses fit the Confrontive Coping or Accepting Responsibility categories and none of the responses indicated that the women sought professional help. Of the 176 women who provided answers to the study question, more than half (64.2%; n = 113) gave only emotion-focused responses, 2.8% (n = 5) gave only problem-focused responses, 2.8% (n = 5) gave mixed responses, and 30.2% (n = 53) reported social support seeking. Implications for future research, cultural theory, and nursing practice are addressed.

Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Adolescent Daughters’ Substance Use, and Father Residence in Minority Families

“…Given that the sample in this study consists of Black and Hispanic families, who commonly rely on extended families for assistance (Taylor, Mouzon, Nguyen, & Chatters, 2016), it is possible that relatives or other adults might have been involved in the child's life. When mothers are depressed, extended family or friends might provide more support to the mother (Atkins, 2016), which may facilitate the mother providing better quality parenting to the child. Furthermore, the relatives might also elect to provide support to the adolescents, and this may provide some protection against maternal depression, decreasing the likelihood of using substances to cope with the stress.…”

The wounds that do not heal: Black expendability and the traumatizing aftereffects of anti-Black police violence

“…These perceptions and myths also inform policies and practices within police departments, court systems, correctional agencies, parole and probation departments and sentencing boards, often leading to disproportionate rates of incarceration of Black men, women and children, as well as a greater likelihood of violent encounters between police and mentally ill Black people during wellness checks. In North America, the mental illnesses most commonly experienced by Black people are psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders, bipolar disorders, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (Adeponle et al, 2012;Anderson et al, 2015;Anglin et al, 2014;Atkins, 2016;Barnes, 2013;Carrington, 1980;Geller et al, 2014;Hansson et al, 2012;Hunt et al, 2013;Jarvis et al, 2011;Marshall et al, 2013;Martin et al, 2013;Soto et al, 2011;Waldron, 2019;Whittle et al, 2019).…”

Marital Status and Depressive Symptoms in African Americans: The Moderating Role of Social and Religious Resources

“…Compared to African Americans who reported feeling "very close" to family, those reporting feeling "not very close" to family had a threefold increase in depression (Shim et al, 2012). For African American single mothers with depressive symptoms, seeking social support was a more frequently cited coping strategy than was seeking professional care (Atkins, 2016). A study of relationship quality found that higher quality, long-term, supportive, and reciprocal extended family and marital relationships buffered the positive association between lifetime diagnoses of psychiatric conditions and current symptoms of depression among midlife African Americans and Whites (Crowell et al, 2014).…”