Highlights
- •Resilience, thriving in the face of adversity, is a critical component of well-being in African American women.
- •Traditional definitions and approaches to operationalize resilience may not capture race- and gender-related resilience experiences of African American women.
- •Culturally relevant components of resilience including spirituality/religion, strength, survival, active coping, and social support.
- •It is important to operationalize resilience as a multidimensional construct so it can be optimally included in research designed to investigate the quality of life, cardiovascular risk, and other health outcomes in African American women.
Abstract
Resilience, thriving in the face of adversity, is a critical component of well-being
in African American women. However, traditional definitions and approaches to operationalize
resilience may not capture race- and gender-related resilience experiences of African
American women. A more complete conceptualization of resilience may help facilitate
future investigation of the mechanisms through which resilience influences health
in this group. Our team conducted a scoping review of the literature published during
twenty years, between 2000 and 2019, on resilience and health in African American
women. We included a multidisciplinary set of databases (PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO,
Scopus, Social Work Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, Academic Search Premier). Using
Covidence software a multi-step review process was conducted; 904 abstracts were initially
screened for eligibility, 219 full-text studies were screened in stage two, and 22
remaining studies were reviewed for extraction. The studies reviewed revealed limitations
of unidimensional approaches to conceptualizing/operationalizing resilience in African
American women. The review highlighted culturally-relevant components of resilience
including spirituality/religion, strength, survival, active coping, and social support.
Findings highlight the importance of operationalizing resilience as a multidimensional
construct so it can be optimally included in research designed to investigate the
quality of life, cardiovascular risk, and other health outcomes in African American
women.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
April 23,
2023
Received in revised form:
February 19,
2023
Received:
March 9,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
