Survey gives insight on Black women’s coping styles
Staff Writer
Throughout her doctoral work, Texas A&M Assistant Sport Management Professor Akilah R. Carter-Francique found that there wasnât as much research done on how Black women cope with stress or stressful situations. In response, she created a survey to act as a foundation for her own research.
âWhat I began to see in the literature â or rather not see â was discussions on Black women. So I went into my study more exploratory than trying to determine what is going on with Black women today,â recalls Carter-Francique. Through the use of a survey, she asked several female athletes at her school to share their experiences with racial stereotyping and discrimination situations.
According to two scholars she quoted in her work, there are three dimensions of coping: task-oriented coping (TOC), emotion-oriented coping (EOC) and avoidance-oriented coping. The TOC strategy doesnât seems to be used by Black women as the other two, says the professor.
âSome [women] will cope with [stress] just by [focusing on] one project at a time. Others will deal with it on the emotion side, and then others will use the third area â the avoidance-oriented [coping]. If you want to look at professional Black women in the working world, they may adopt the avoidance coping style as well. I think it is because when you look at the stereotypes [that] surround Black women and the notion of the âangry Black womanâ â if she does speak up for herself, it often is seen as aggressive,â Carter-Francique notes.
Though each woman handles challenges differently, the professorâs research shows that Black women most often use the third coping dimension. âThe similarities are that we all have these challenges, but the differences [is] in how we chose to deal with or [are] coping with them. What I really found [was] that [Black females see] coping styles such as prayingâ as important, says Carter-Francique.
âIf they were being discriminated againstâŠif the coaches were on them, they wouldnât necessarily confront them,â she continues. âWhat they did was chose toâŠdo things such as pray or revert to religion, talking it out among friends or mom and dadâŠutilizing their journals [or] listening to music,â the professor says.
âBasketball is my stress reliever,â admits Devereaux Peters, a recent Notre Dame graduate and first-year Minnesota Lynx player. âI would go shoot [hoops] by myself. That usually works when Iâm stressed out about something or I had a lot of things on my mind. Iâm not a talker and I donât like to write things in a diary.â
âIt is so easy to get stressed out about little things,â says Monica Wright, a third-year player with the Minnesota Lynx. âWhen you have faith in God, all that stuff is so unimportant. I just pray to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; he is my stress reliever.â
Carter-Francique also discovered in her study, âWhen talking with [Black females], they modeled the same behaviors that their mothers, grandmothers [and] aunts did in dealing with issues of stress.â
âEverybody learns from their mother,â jokes Wright.
Black womenâs experiences âare distinct and different from those of African American men and White women,â says Carter-Francique. âWhen you deal with issues of race and racism, I think it is one of those things that some think we are in a âpost-racial environmentâ and others may assume that you are jumping to conclusions and being hyper-sensitive. But thereâs very real issues about racism that are taking place, and not so much overt [racism] but more covert and more subtle,â she explains.
âSo these small little things that happen on a day-to-day basis â that may be a colleague not acknowledging youâŠthose little things begin to add up.â She calls this âmicro-aggression.â
Carter-Francique is currently studying Black female athletes, but she warns that her sample group shouldnât be used as a basis for all Black female college athletes nationwide.
âBeing a female athlete, and a Black female athlete, you are going to be looked at in [as] many ways [as] someone puts you in a box or in a certain category,â says Wright. âThe main thing for me is to be who you are, embrace who you are as a person, for your family and where you came from, and donât try to change based on other peopleâs ideas and perspectives on you.â
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.
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