Thesis advisor: Janet E. Helms / Black women have been more likely to suffer from negative health conditions in comparison to Black men and White women. The biopsychosocial model might suggest that gendered racism and related stress may contribute to poor health, but the model has not been adapted to address the specific psychological factors that uniquely affect Black women’s health. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between gendered racism and eating and exercise practices of Black women in addition to examining racial and gender identity as potential mediators of the effects of gendered racism on health behaviors of Black women. Adult Black women (N= 153) were invited to complete measures that assessed gendered-racism experiences and stressors, racial identity (BRIAS), womanist identity (WIAS), and health behaviors. Multivariate multiple regression analyses revealed that more experiences of gendered racism were related to lower levels of emotional eating, but higher levels of uncontrolled eating and physical activity. WIAS Immersion/Emersion (idealization of women), WIAS Encounter (confusion regarding gender beliefs) and BRIAS Immersion (idealization of Black people) were significant mediators of these relationships. A post hoc canonical correlation analysis indicated that experiencing higher levels of gendered racism was related to greater use of less sophisticated racial and gender identity schemas, which were related to lower levels of emotional eating and higher levels of uncontrolled eating and physical activity. These results suggested that BRIAS and WIAS concepts should be integrated rather than treating them as separate sets of variables when investigating gendered racism. Collectively, the results of the main and post hoc analyses indicated that race and gender constructs were related to health practices, but not in explicable ways. Limitations of existing measures for studying this population are discussed and results are used to speculate about the implications of biological, psychological, and socio-cultural factors on the health engagement practices of Black women. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

Thesis advisor: Janet E. Helms / As the first generation born after China introduced its "one-child policy," Chinese female students in the United States belong to a special population that is under the dual pressures of their parents' expectations to succeed and the conflicting traditional Chinese stereotypes of women as obedient to men, dependent, and home orientated. Previous research on Chinese female students' acculturative experiences indicates that these women face unique challenges in redefining their gender roles. However, no studies have explored whether womanist and acculturative processes are related to this psychological transition. The current study explored womanist identity and acculturation attitudes as processes influencing Chinese women's negotiations of their gender roles and redefinitions of themselves as women while living in the United States. Chinese female international students (N=192), enrolled in colleges or universities in the US, completed a demographic questionnaire; the Womanist Identity Attitude Scale (Helms, 1990), which assessed their manner of coping with traditional role expectations; and, the Acculturation Scale for Asian International Students (Gu, 2008), which measured acculturation attitudes. Their gender-role traits and stereotypical attitudes toward American women were examined by the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) (Bem, 1974) and Attitudes toward Women Scale (AWS) (Spence, Helmrich, & Stapp, 1978). Canonical correlation analyses were used to investigate relationships among (a) womanist identity and acculturation attitudes, (b) womanist identity and gender-roles, and (c) acculturation attitudes and gender roles. Two identity-acculturation patterns, three identity-gender role patterns, and two acculturation-gender role patterns were identified. When the Chinese women were self-defining their gender-role identity, they were participating in U.S. culture and integrating traditional and non-traditional gender-role traits and attitudes. Traditional womanist attitudes were associated with increased levels of rejecting the U.S. culture, traditional gender roles, and perceived dissimilarities between themselves and U.S. women. The current study is the first to investigate gender-role and acculturation developmental issues of "One-Child" women from a psychological perspective. Obtained results suggest that their adaptive processes are more complex than anticipated. Methodological limitations of the study are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

xv, 142 p. : ill. (some col.) / Young Latina women are at risk for unwanted pregnancy and sexually-transmitted infections. Researchers have suggested that factors such as self-efficacy and relationship power dynamics may contribute to difficulty in negotiating safe sex practices. For women in heterosexual relationships, the most common prevention practice--condom use--requires partner cooperation. Sociocultural variables related to gender role socialization can adversely affect a woman's ability to negotiate condom use. I developed and tested a model of sociocultural predictors of Latina women's safe sex practices. The predictors included ethnic identity, acculturation, womanist identity, gender role attitudes, sexual self-efficacy, and sexual relationship power. I surveyed 210 young adult Latina women via an online survey that was disseminated across the United States via social networking websites and email. I used path analysis to investigate the fit of the hypothesized model with the data, first to predict condom use and second to predict sexual history exploration. Results indicated that the hypothesized model predicting the safe sex practice of exploring a partner's sexual history had a good fit to the data, whereas the model predicting condom use did not provide an adequate fit to the data. These findings suggest that young adult Latinas' exploration of a partner's sexual history is more likely to occur when women have stronger ethnic identity and womanist identity, more egalitarian gender role attitudes, and higher levels of partner dominance and control in their relationship. The model accounted for 16% of the variance in sexual history exploration. Although the variance explained was low, this model is still informative of the factors that contribute to sexual history exploration. Exploring a potential partner's history is an important aspect of safe sex practices that can have major implications for healthy sexual decision-making. Understanding an individual's cultural identity via ethnic and womanist identity, as well as considering sociocultural (e.g., gender role attitudes) and interpersonal (e.g., relationship power) factors, can inform prevention efforts that will contribute to safe sex behavioral outcomes. Other factors that may contribute to safe sex practice outcomes that were not accounted for by the models are noted. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. / Committee in charge: Dr. Ellen H. McWhirter, Chairperson; Dr. Linda Forrest, Member; Dr. Joseph Stevens, Member; Dr. Lynn Fujiwara, Outside Member