Family Science
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2239
Formerly known as the Department of Family Studies.
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Item “STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM, NOW WE’RE…WHERE?”” A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF STRESS AND COPING AMONG HIGHLY EDUCATED BLACK WOMEN(2021) Ellick, Kecia Lurie; Lewin, Amy B; Roy, Kevin M; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Rationale: Black women suffer disproportionate rates of stress-related diseases including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, maternal mortality, and depression. Education is promoted as a protective factor against these outcomes. An increasing number of Black women are leveraging advanced degrees to secure leadership positions in education, law, science, and technology. Yet, highly educated, middle-class Black women experience the same deleterious health outcomes, at the same rates, as Black women living in poverty. This suggests that neither education nor its correlates protect Black women from harmful outcomes. It further suggests that, for Black women, the cost of social mobility afforded by advanced education may result in diminishing returns by reproducing and reinforcing social inequalities that inform and exacerbate negative experiences.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of highly educated Black women during their prime work, partnering, and reproductive years. This study examined the strategies that highly educated Black women employed to cope with stressors perceived while navigating, negotiating, and performing multiple roles, social identities, and responsibilities in their personal and professional lives. Methods: Data was collected from a sample of Black, middle-class women living in Georgia, ages 28 - 49, with doctorate degrees (n = 24, Mage = 40.2) via in-person, semi-structured interviews. Following a constructivist grounded theory approach, a triadic scheme of open, axial, and selective coding will be performed to uncover emergent themes from women’s narratives. Findings: Evaluation of the data revealed three central themes that serve as the main findings of this study and answer the study questions about how highly educated Black women experience and cope with stress: 1) redefining of the strong Black woman, 2) prioritization of self-care practices and, 3) unapologetic authenticity. Discussion: This study explored the heterogeneity of Black women and contributes to the body literature focused on the interactive effects of race, gender, and class. It provides empirical data on the ways in which Black women experience, perceive, and respond to stress and highlights the ways in which Black women take proactive approaches to protect their health and well-being.Item The Association Between Inadequate Gestational Weight Gain and Infant Death Among U.S. Infants Born 2004-2008(2012) Davis, Regina R.; Hofferth, Sandra L.; Shenassa, Edmond; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Infant mortality is of great public health importance and its prevalence is often used as a summary indicator of a population's reproductive health status. Programmatic and policy focus on prematurity and birth weight stems largely from their known relationship to infant mortality and morbidity. A large body of literature exists linking poor gestational weight gain to prematurity and low birth weight, but its association with infant mortality is less well understood. Few nationally representative studies have examined infant death as an important pregnancy outcome of inadequate gestational weight gain and even fewer have explored its psychosocial and demographic correlates.
As a measure of healthy gestational weight gain, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published guidelines which provide a recommended weight gain for each category of pre-pregnancy Body Mass Index (BMI). Informed by the Biomedical and Biopsychosocial models, this study examined the association between the IOM measure of inadequate gestational weight gain and risk of infant mortality by conducting secondary analyses of the 2005 Birth Cohort Linked Birth-Infant Death Data File (Cohort Linked File) and Phase 5 of the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). An analysis of 160,011 women who participated in PRAMS between 2004 and 2008 was used to replicate the IOM guidelines and examine the link between gestational weight gain and risks of infant mortality within four months of birth. The PRAMS dataset was also used to analyze the association between maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, weight gain, and infant death, as well as the influence of maternal stress on gestational weight gain. A separate analysis of 2,046,725 infants in the 2005 cohort linked file was conducted to quantify the risk of infant death associated with inadequate gestational weight gain as well as cause-specific mortality. Results from logistic and proportional hazards regression analyses suggest there is a substantial and significant association between inadequate gestational weight gain and infant death; however weight gain beyond the recommended amount may be protective. Inadequate gestational weight gain was associated with infant death from disorders relating to short gestation, fetal malnutrition, respiratory conditions, and birth defects. Receipt of adequate prenatal care was protective against inadequate gestational weight gain, but a positive association was not found between inadequate gestational weight gain and maternal stress. Implications for public health programs, policy, and future research are presented.