As we know, underrepresented women, particularly African American women face higher rates of stressors. This study considers how Covid19 impacts the mental health of pregnant African American women. Interviews explored the kinds of stressors impacting pregnant African American women during COVID and the social support they receive from family, friends, and employers to cope with these stressors. The study uses a stress process model approach to interpret findings (Pearlin 1981). These findings help us to understand how African American women are coping with the pandemic.

Within Labor Economics, there is a growing literature on peer effect spillovers. Peer effects, in education, examine how a student’s characteristics or innate ability might affect the achievement outcomes of their peers. Within the peer effect literature in post-secondary education, peer groups are often examined within dormitories. The Kent State University dataset used is interesting. In this dataset, peer groups are defined within First Year Experience classrooms, which are mandatory courses taken by freshman students in their first semesters at KSU. First, we distinguish the differences between our two student groups of interest, off and on campus students. We find that there are distinct differences between the two student groups and that the proportion of a student’s class that is on-campus is insignificant for off-campus students. Given these differences, we will then analyze how the quality of student achievement outcomes might affect one another’s grade point average or retention outcomes.

Racism, depression, and everyday stressors negatively affect the mental health of African American men, an understudied demographic. To study this underrepresented group, we made a web-based survey asking male-identifying African Americans a series of questions about experiences of racial discrimination, depressive symptoms, masculinity, racial identity, and demographic. The goal of this study is to see how all these previously mentioned factors affect the willingness of the demographic to seek mental health services on campus. A vast majority of the participants reported never having used mental health services on campus or otherwise. Although this study does not directly benefit the participants, we hope that the data that is collected will help improve access and destigmatize mental health services for African American men on college campuses.

Research suggests that social capital contributes to the stressors that college students face, and stressors can lead to poor mental health, which can impact academic performance and relationships. We hypothesize that the more social capital (i.e., funds, access to information, and connections) a student holds, the less likely they are to experience stressors and poor mental health. Respondents include individuals between the ages 18-25 years old (Target N = 150) in TRIO programs (i.e., Upward Bound, Student Support Services, and McNair Scholars Program). Respondents will complete an online Qualtrics survey. To test the hypotheses, we will examine the correlations between social capital, stressors, and self-rated mental health Implications for meeting the mental health needs of TRIO students will be discussed.

George Floyd’s death came six weeks after the police fatally shot Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, during a midnight “no knock” raid on her home. It came ten weeks after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, who was chased down by a White father and son in a pickup truck as he jogged in his neighborhood. These deaths seemed to spark the reminiscence, from 400 years ago, of oppression of Black people. During a pandemic that sickened and killed many African Americans, the deaths unleashed a rampage against oppression that became the catalyst for uprisings of people to pour into the streets by protesting and demanding justice and an end to police brutality around the whole world.

Research finds that students, particularly underrepresented students, benefit from faculty or staff mentors, whereas less is known about the role of peer mentors. This research expands upon prior research by exploring how peer mentorship contributes to college students’ mental health. Respondents include young adult men and women ages 18-25 years old (Target N = 150), including students served by TRIO programs (i.e., Student Support Services and McNair Scholars Program). Respondents will complete an online Qualtrics survey and answer questions about access to student mentors on campus and their mental health. To test the hypotheses, we will examine the correlations between access to student mentors and self-rated mental health. Implications for programming to support the mental health needs of TRIO students will be discussed.

The findings from this project are part of a larger study that explores how narratives on neighborhood change transform over time, and how local governing powers shape dominant narratives about neighborhoods. We examine competing narratives of neighborhood change through an in-depth analysis of local news-media coverage in Grand Rapids, MI. Using inductive and deductive coding, we draw on 20 years of local news-media and nearly 190 articles to analyze the competing and evolving narratives of neighborhood change. Further, we evaluate how residents, developers, and local community-based organizations perceive the visible processes of neighborhood change, such as the construction (or lack thereof) of low-income housing. This research contributes to the existing literature on gentrification and the role of local nonprofits and community-based organizations in these processes.

Research shows that marginalized communities often are the last to seek mental health services, despite suffering from them at alarming rates. This study will examine the associations between mental health stigma and TRIO students’ (i.e., Student Support Services, McNair Scholars Program) mental health knowledge and comfort in seeking services. Respondents include men and women ages 18-25 years old (Target N = 150) with a focus on first-generation/low-income students and underrepresented students. Respondents will complete an online survey and answer questions about their feelings of shame and/or stigma and their comfort and knowledge related to mental health. We expect higher stigma will be associated with less comfort and knowledge related to mental health. Implications for improving mental health among TRIO students will be discussed.

This presentation shows that institutional racism plays a role in the higher mortality and morbidity rates of female minorities, specifically Black women, due to the policies created out of racism in the United States of America. The number of deaths occurring during and after labor has been increasing, along with the number of severe complications during labor. This research explores how the increased morbidity and mortality rates in maternal health are affected by the prominent racism within both the American society and health care system, which is caused by the policies created out of slavery. It explains why it is important that we, as healthcare workers, address the issue of racism in American society in order to help the lives of maternal Black women.

Women who communicate like men (e.g., confidently or assertively) are sometimes socially penalized for how they communicate. Listeners have been shown to take advantage of acoustic cues to confidence to interpret intentionality in women speakers. We extend this line of research to include listeners’ evaluations of confident speech as a function of socio-indexical cues to gender. We used a matched-guise design to digitally manipulate speaker gender and cues to confidence. Results indicated that listeners accurately interpret speaker cues to confidence, but listeners tend to differentially interpret the speakers’ acoustic cues to lack of confidence based on speaker gender. Findings suggest that conceptions about gender-specific communication styles may lead to misinterpretations of intentionality about women, potentially accounting for some of the barriers women face during communication.