There is a low representation of Black American women (BAW) in health care senior leadership. With the high level of health problems found among the Black community, diversifying the executive leadership with BAW may be instrumental in increasing provider trust and reducing discriminatory action. Using critical race theory as the conceptual framework, this study examined the experiences, perceptions, and influential or deterrent factors inhibiting advancement of BAW in the health care field. Inquiry centered on factors related to lack of advancement, experiences at different stages of career progression, and strategies impacting career advancement. A qualitative research design using a transcendental phenomenological approach was the chosen method. Seven BAW who met the criteria for inclusion were selected by purposive sampling. Data were collected from semi-structured, audio-recorded, interviews using a newly created protocol. Data analysis included open coding; line-by-line data review; and the use of NVivo to search for frequencies of themes, coding, and text queries. Emergent themes were identified that provided comprehensive descriptions of the participants' experiences. According to study findings, perceived and experienced racial issues were apparent in hiring and work relations. Disparate practices were evident through a lack of inclusion in succession planning, being overlooked despite qualifications, and stereotyping. These findings may stimulate social change by helping those BAW aspiring for senior healthcare leadership to be more successful and by improving health outcomes for BAW through enhanced trust.

Blacks marry less and divorce more than any other racial demographic in the United States. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine identity style preferences in relation to attitudes toward marriage and marital satisfaction among Black Americans. Identity style is the way in which a person approaches and processes information that has the potential to affect self-identity. Identity style theory suggests there are three primary styles (informative, normative, and diffuse-avoidant) and that each person will eventually settle upon a preferred style. All participants in this study were United States citizens, over the age of 18, and self-identified as Black. Participants were recruited through online participant pools. This study consisted of 2 groups of participants: single and married. All participants completed the Identity Style Inventory 5 to provide a measure of identity style preference. Single participants completed the General Attitudes toward Marriage Scale (GAMS) to provide a measure of attitudes toward marriage. Married participants completed the ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale to provide a measure of marital satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses were used to identify relationships between the 3 identity styles, marital satisfaction, and attitudes toward marriage. The informational identity style was found to predict higher marital satisfaction. The diffuse-avoidant identity style was found to predict positive attitudes toward marriage. The normative style was not found to predict marital satisfaction or attitudes toward marriage. This study adds to the current literature regarding Black marriage trends and may aid in future development of intervention methods designed to increase the marriage rate and lower the divorce rate among all Black Americans.

Sarcoidosis is a disease characterized as noncaseation granulomas. Granulomas are clusters of cells that form a discrete nodule. This research was important because Black American women develop saroidosis at a higher rate than any other race. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the impact of sarcoidosis in the lives of Black American women diagnosed with the disease and to consider how occupational experiences may have contributed to participants' development of sarcoidosis. Research states that domestic work such as cleaning, when performed on a daily basis or as an occupation, can contribute to adverse health effects. The framework of this study utilized the transtheoretical model of behavior change while the overall research questions centered on the effects of sarcoidosis on the quality of life of Black American women. This qualitative research included interviews with thirteen Black American women diagnosed and living with sarcoidosis at various stages. Data were collected using the software tool HyperRESEARCH. Both purposive sampling and snowball sampling technique was used for this research. Data were gathered using a general profile of the lived experiences of women with sarcoidosis. The findings revealed that the common lived experience that has potentially put Black American women at risk for developing sarcoidosis is bleach. My recommendations for further research would be to expand the locations of participants to across the United States. The implications for positive social change may result from broader knowledge of the disease through education, even for those who are not at risk for developing it. Chronic sarcoidosis can be fatal if untreated.

Closer to Earth explores a Black midwestern family's generational spiritual connection to nature through the power of spiritual archiving, ancestral veneration, and oral storytelling.

Scholarship on Black American religious life has historically understood Black Pentecostalism as unconcerned with the socially-challenging lived experiences of its congregants. Many scholars and lay observers, maintaining that such Pentecostal religious life has no identifiable political dimension, have consequently overlooked the political nature of the ritual practices animating the worship event. Centering the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) as a case study, this dissertation argues that the ritual practices of COGIC worship events carry a tradition of political protest that contest dominant ideas of what it means to be “human” as both a social-political identity and an ontological category. To accomplish its task, this dissertation reinterprets turn-of-the-twentieth-century historical events and employs social theory to investigate the social practices of Black Pentecostals. It is the contention of this dissertation that COGIC congregants have historically embodied and expressed their political commitments through the adoption, adaptation, and engagement with Christian rituals. The project demonstrates how the ritual practices of worship (relating to preaching, music-making, tarrying, and ecstasy) allow COGIC congregants to remake themselves and their world, challenging the larger society to reconsider what it means to be “human.” Through the examination of four ritual practices of COGIC worship, this project explains how that group participates in the political dimension of human life as a necessary part of its religious activity. Through the activity of worship, congregants participate in the work of making themselves anew, which impacts how the greater society relates to them as people who are due the rights and privileges of U.S. American citizenship. Simultaneously, COGIC worship provides the ontological discourse or tools for congregants to become “new beings,” which directly corresponds to—and contests (racist) dominant ideas of—what it means to be human. / 2026-05-16T00:00:00Z

Black Americans experience influenza vaccination rates that are lower than the rates of other ethnic groups. Low influenza vaccination rates among the Black community are associated with higher influenza infection rates, influenza-related hospitalizations, and higher influenza mortality rates. There is a belief within the Black American community that the medical establishment does not have the Black American patient in its best interest, leading to feelings of distrust. The purpose of this study was to determine if the distrust of the medical community is a relevant factor in the low influenza vaccination rates of Black Americans aged 18 and older in Baltimore, Maryland. The study also examined the belief that the influenza vaccine causes the flu and the effect this belief may have on influenza vaccination rates. The public health critical race theory served as the framework for the study. Previously validated survey instruments, the Health Care System Distrust Scale and the Adult Influenza Immunization Survey, were obtained with permission and used to collect data from the members of a Baltimore city church. The study used chi-square analysis, multivariable logistic regression, and narrative discussion to address the research questions and analyze the data of 105 completed surveys. Results of the study determined that distrust of the medical community was not a relevant factor in the influenza vaccination rates of study participants, and that participants' vaccination status was influenced by factors other than distrust. Implications for social change included improving the influenza vaccination rate among Black Americans and decreasing their influenza mortality rates.

Researchers and economists have argued that the economic and social stagnation of African Americans is the result of their lack of self-confidence, initiative, and commitment toward their own advancement. This qualitative study examined whether historical conditioning and personal experiences have created a hypersensitivity in this population to events triggering behaviors that mirror the success fearing personality when seeking social, economic, and political advancement. It used Zuckerman and Allison's fear of success scale to identify the range of success fearing in 30 African American men and women aged 35 years or more; this group was also interviewed regarding their lived experiences when pursuing advancements in the United States workforce. The interview questions were formulated using Cohen's fear of success factors; responses were inductively coded and organized using ATLAS.ti 7 software program. Regardless of their fear of success scale (FOSS) scores, the participants' interview responses revealed that even in the absence of explicit or implicit discrimination, there was an unconscious expectation of racism, and that strong family, religious, and educational influences aided in preserving these expectations. The participants were also found to be hypersensitive to events that triggered behaviors mirroring the characteristics of success fearing personality. The findings of this study can have far-reaching implications for the overall social and psychological betterment of African Americans in organizations, educational institutes, and political/civic action groups. It should be used to begin an alternative conversation of personal and social reconciliation, emotional healing, and pride, which participants asserted was the cornerstone of African American progress in the 1960s.

Researchers have suggested that Blacks who express linked racial fate are ideologically liberal. Given the prominence of Black philosophical thought and salience of race, I suggest that linked racial fate results in conservative ideology, which exists on a separate ideological dimension than the traditional conservative ideological dimension. This new ideological dimension, referred to as conservatism among Blacks, is vital to understanding Black political thought in the 21st century. Using data from the 1996 National Black Election Study, 2008 National Annenberg Election Study, and focus group data I argue that the conservative ideas espoused by Blacks, specifically members of the Talented Tenth, actually support Black advancement in the same way that Blacks express support for Democratic candidates or ideals as a result of linked racial fate. Moreover, conservatism among Blacks does not result in a specific partisan identification or support for certain candidates; instead, conservatism results in explicit support for policies and ideas that align with the ideas and philosophies of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Marcus M. Garvey. This dissertation fills the gap in the literature that does not utilize Black philosophers, Black political leaders, or college educated Blacks to explain Black political thought and behavior. The study of members of the Talented Tenth provides a framework for understanding how Blacks negotiate various political philosophies, challenging traditional Black American political thought while remaining racially linked to the Black community

An exploratory study was conducted to augment the current literature on religiosity and spirituality by identifying and systematically measuring the salient variables and underlying constructs regarding spirituality and religion in African American families and their children between the ages of 7 to 12. The study examined psychosocial correlates, such as self-esteem and ethnic identity, and their impact on religiosity and spirituality. This study sought to validate the Age-Universal I/E Scale for use with African American children occurred with this study and pilot the African American Children's Ethnic Identity Scale (ACHEIDS). Through qualitative and quantitative research this study found multiple correlations associated with religion, spirituality, age, gender, aspects of self-esteem, and ethnic identity. Regression analyses were also conducted to identify predictive variables associated with the I/E.

This thesis examines the class appeal of Marcus Garvey's propaganda and his relationship with the black American left through the end of his movement's formative years to reveal aspects of his political thought that are not entirely represented in the historiography. Although several historians have addressed Garvey's affiliation with the black American left there has not yet been a consummate study on the nature of that relationship. This study examines the class element of Garvey's propaganda from his formative years through his radical phase, tracing the evolution of his ideas and attributing factors to those changes. Garvey influenced and was influenced by the labor movement and the class appeal of his propaganda was much stronger than historians have allowed. Garvey ultimately distanced himself and his program from the left for a number of reasons. The United States Justice Department's campaign to infiltrate his organization and remove him at the height of the Red Scare caused him to distance his program from the left. Since Garvey was pragmatic, not ideologically driven, and economic theory was secondary to black autonomy in his philosophy, increased criticism from former associates in the black American left, coupled with his exclusion from African-American intelligentsia, impacted his decision to embrace an alternative program. During the final years of his radical phase Garvey's ideas, program and relationships were impacted by a collision of the personal and political in his world. Understanding the complexity of Garvey's evolving ideology, and looking at the causes for those changes, are crucial to the study of the movement and its impact.