| Abstrakt: |
Past efforts to conceptualize the mental health of African American women have applied traditional mental health models a priori to this and other minority groups; often leading to inconsistent and inconclusive findings related to mental health components and processes. Such research has mainly focused on defining and testing for mental health using an objective set of measures and conceptual definitions of mental health that have failed to consider both structural and individual variables, as well as mental health processes that directly influence mental health. In-depth interviews with 20 African American women identified as having mental health in three U.S. metropolitan cities show that mental health is an active pursuit that is supported through the use of a deconstructive/reconstructive process, in addition to other coping mechanisms. Deconstruction is an interpretive process that involves recognizing and externalizing factors affecting one's mental health and is shaped by one's relative position to her social environment. Participants use the deconstructive process to identify four early childhood socialization practices and three factors shaping their adulthood that negatively impact their mental functioning. I argue that deconstruction alone is insufficient to maintaining a healthy state of mind. Reconstruction, or the ability to transform potential mental health threats into effective counterstrategies is a significant mental health process; this research discusses four counterstrategies used by participants. Reconstruction strategies depend on one's race, gender, sexuality, religious beliefs/practices, mothering and marital status, age and available coping resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
