Gendered racism, anxiety, and depression: the mediating roles of gendered racialized stress and social isolation

ABSTRACT

Objective

Black women experience unique stressors linked to the intersection of racism and sexism (i.e. gendered racism). While the negative effects of gendered racism are associated with Black women's health, less is known about factors that describe these relationships.

Design

Using data from 263 Black women, we used path analysis to examine direct and indirect effects of gendered racism on anxiety and depression through gendered racialized stress. We also examined the direct and indirect effects of gendered racialized stress on anxiety and depression through social isolation.

Results

After adjusting for covariates, gendered racism, and gendered racialized stress were not statistically significant predictors of anxiety and depression. However, gendered racism was a statistically significant predictor of gendered racialized stress. Also, social isolation mediated the relationships between gendered racism, gendered racialized stress, and anxiety, as well as depression.

Conclusions

Stress from gendered racism is associated with loneliness, which can negatively impact Black women's mental health. Findings suggest that gendered racialized stress and social isolation is important for understanding the relationship between gendered racism and mental health outcomes, such as anxiety and depression.

KEYWORDS:

• Gendered racism
• gendered racialized stress
• Black women
• anxiety
• depression

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declarations

Ethics Approval: All research described herein has been conducted according to the American Psychological Association's ethical guidelines and has been approved by university's Institutional Review Board. Informed consent was obtained from all participants in this study.

Authors’ Contributions: Tamara Nelson (Lead Author: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing); Monique Brown (Second Author, Conceptualization, Formal Analysis, Writing); Isis Garcia-Rodriguez (Third Author, Writing); Oswaldo Moreno (Senior Author, Supervision, Writing)

Consent for Publication: All authors consented to the submission of this revised manuscript for publication.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.