Elsevier

Social Science & Medicine

Volume 139, August 2015, Pages 107-114
Social Science & Medicine

“If you do nothing about stress, the next thing you know, you're shattered”: Perspectives on African American men's stress, coping and health from African American men and key women in their lives

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.06.036Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Stress is a key contributor to African American men's poor health outcomes.

  • African American men and women interpreted the same coping strategies differently.

  • Men described some changes due to stress as conscious and others unconscious.

  • Men used spirituality, self-reliance and internalization to cope with stress.

  • Men and women rarely discussed drugs and alcohol as coping strategies.

Abstract

Stress has been implicated as a key contributor to poor health outcomes; however, few studies have examined how African American men and women explicitly describe the relationships among stress, coping, and African American men's health. In this paper, we explore strategies men use to cope with stress, and beliefs about the consequences of stress for African American men's health behaviors, morbidity and mortality from the perspectives of African American men and women. A phenomenological analytic approach was used to examine focus group data collected from 154 African American men (18 focus groups) and 77 African American women (8 focus groups). Women's perspectives were captured because women often observe men under stress and can provide support to men during stressful times. Our findings indicate that African American men in this study responded to stress by engaging in often identified coping behaviors (i.e., consumption of calorie dense food, exercise, spiritually-related activities). Men in our study, however, did not always view their responses to stress as explicit coping mechanisms. There was also some discordance between men's and women's perceptions of men's coping behaviors as there were occasions where they seemed to interpret the same behavior differently (e.g., resting vs. avoidance). Men and women believed that stress helped to explain why African American men had worse health than other groups. They identified mental, physical and social consequences of stress. We conclude by detailing implications for conceptualizing and measuring coping and we outline key considerations for interventions and further research about stress, coping and health.

Section snippets

Purpose

Despite this research, few studies have asked African American men and other men of color about how stress influences their behaviors and health outcomes (Ravenell, 2006, Utsey et al., 2000). Even fewer studies have simultaneously considered how female members of men's social networks (i.e., close relatives and friends) interpret behaviors men exhibit as a result of stress (Griffith et al., 2013a, Griffith et al., 2013b, Griffith et al., 2011, Marks et al., 2006). Recognizing how African

Materials and methods

This analysis is part of a larger study which examined African American men's and women's perceptions of the social, cultural, and environmental factors that affected African American men's eating behavior, physical activity, and stress (Griffith et al., 2012a, Griffith et al., 2012b). A specific aim of the study was to understand stress and stressors in African American men's lives (in general) and how stress influenced their diet and physical activity. Study findings on sources of African

Results

Table 1 provides a summary of demographic characteristics of male focus group participants and men discussed by female participants. The average age for men in the focus groups was 55 years old (range: 32–82) and most of the men discussed by women in the focus groups were between the ages of 50 and 64. A majority of the men were married or in a relationship, and the average household size was approximately three people. Most of the men owned their home. A majority of male focus group

Discussion

These findings highlight the importance of understanding African American men's stress and coping patterns through an intersectional lens (Griffith et al., 2013a, Griffith et al., 2013b, Davis, 2008, Mullings and Schulz, 2006, Warner and Brown, 2011). African American men's lives, health, and behaviors are shaped by the intersection of at least two processes: male gender socialization (Courtenay, 2000b), the process by which men learn the gender and culturally ascribed behaviors that

Conclusions

Identifying how African American men respond to stress is important for understanding and addressing their disproportionately high rates of stress-related chronic disease and premature mortality. As many coping strategies have health implications, it is critical to explore how stress and coping frameworks apply to men's health in general and African American men's health in particular. It is noteworthy to acknowledge that for some of the chronic stressors African American men face, such as

Acknowledgments

This manuscript was supported in part by grants from the American Cancer Society (MRSGT-07-167-01-CPPB), the Vanderbilt University Institute for Research on Men's Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College, NIDDK (7 R21 DK095257-02) and NCATS (2UL1TR000445-08). Funding to support the first author was provided by the Horace H. Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan.

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