Centering malleable factors in Black women's mental health: How psychological armoring and social support role dynamics connect to trauma symptoms from gendered racism.

Abstract

Prior research centering Black women's mental health has established a link between gendered racism and psychological distress, with perceived low social support and disengagement coping exacerbating adverse mental health outcomes, but these constructs and relationships among them require elaboration to inform culturally relevant care. The present study aimed to extend the literature by examining the mediating role of psychological armoring (a culturally tailored frame for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy's psychological inflexibility model) as a coping response in the connection between gendered racism and trauma symptoms from discrimination among a community sample of 187 Black American women. We introduced the concept of disparity in social support roles (DSSR; e.g., giving more support than receiving) to assess the impact of this factor on perceived low social support and evaluated the moderating role of satisfaction with balance of social support roles (SBSSR) in the gendered racism to disengagement coping link. Results revealed that psychological armoring partially mediated the relationship between gendered racism and trauma symptoms from discrimination. While there was no moderating support for DSSR, giving more support than receiving predicted low social support satisfaction, and decreased SBSSR was related to higher psychological armoring, psychological distress, and trauma symptoms from discrimination. Our results expand upon empirical research that connects gendered racism to adverse psychological outcomes and lends support to psychological armoring and DSSR as malleable mechanisms that can be targeted for wellness-promoting interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).