Black Mamas Matter: Vicarious Anticipatory Police Stress (VAPS) and Mental Health

• In Event: Sociology that Advances Equity in Mental Health

Abstract

To assess how children’s potential police interactions may lead to mental health challenges for Black mothers, I develop the novel concept of vicarious anticipatory police stress (VAPS). VAPS is a vicarious anticipatory source of stress exposure preceding a potential police encounter stemming from the omnipresent and systemic threat of racialized policing. In doing so, I highlight the association between the frequency with which Black mothers think about their child potentially having an encounter with the police and how these potential interactions may have implications for mothers’ mental well-being. I consider self-rated mental health and psychosomatic symptoms because mental health implications may present as physical manifestations of stress (i.e., psychosomatic symptoms) among Black mothers. Second, I investigate whether the gender and age of one’s child(ren) moderated the association between VAPS and mental health outcomes. Findings reveal that VAPS was positively associated with psychosomatic symptoms, but not self-rated mental health. Though VAPS was highest among mothers parenting teenage boys, gender and age of child(ren) did not moderate the VAPS-mental health relationship. Explicating the nexus of Black motherhood and mental health, I provide support to emerging literature on the impact of racialized stressors affecting the health of a historically marginalized population.

Author

• Aigné Ma'Shay Taylor, University of Texas at Austin