Date of Award
8-8-2023
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Psychology
Abstract
It is crucial to examine how experiences of multi-level racism interact to influence potential, overpathologized reactive responses (i.e., dissociative symptoms and psychosis-like experiences) to oppression within Black communities. The present study explored the ways multi-level forms of oppression (i.e., structural and interpersonal racism) interacted to influence psychopathological symptom presentations, which may be understood as reactive responses to multilevel racism among a community sample of trauma-exposed, Black women (N=382). In line with hypotheses, racial discrimination predicted total dissociative symptoms, beyond the effects of age, education, and neighborhood poverty. Exploratory analyses revealed that interpersonal racism also significantly predicted four of the six dissociation subdimensions (i.e., derealization, memory disturbance, emotional constriction, and disengagement). Implications of this study may contribute to future work in this area as well as multidisciplinary avenues to conceptualize and treat diagnosed serious mental illnesses among Black women who are experiencing varying levels of interpersonal and structural racism-related stressors.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/35866804
Recommended Citation
Sanders, Aliyah, "Racism and Psychopathology: Investigating the Interactive Roles of Neighborhood Poverty and Racial Discrimination on Pathologized Reactive Psychological Responses among Black Women." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2023.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/35866804
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