The Impact of Perceived Discrimination on Stress Levels of African American Women Struggling with Excess Weight: A Thematic Literature Review

The minority population of African American women (AAW) have been found to be most at risk when it comes to certain negative health outcomes (Hales, Carroll, Fryar, & Ogden, 2017). The purpose of this literature review is to discuss the negative effects of perceived discrimination on stress levels for obese AAW. Analysis of several studies have found that perceived discrimination increases the stress levels of AAW and can lead to an increase in physical health problems such as poor eating behaviors, which can lead to weight gain and chronic health issues such as hypertension, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, fatty liver disease, and pregnancy complications (Cooper, Thayer, & Waldstein, 2013; Hales, Carroll, Fryar, & Ogden, 2017; Hayman, McIntyre, & Abbey, 2015; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, 2015). Through research, increased stress due to perceived discrimination was also found to have negative impacts on mental health such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, rumination, negative racial regard, and psychological distress (Carter, Walker, Cutrona, Simons, & Beach, 2016; Hill, & Hoggard, 2018; Knox-Kazimierczuk, Geller, Sellers, Baszile, & Smith-Shockley, 2018; Pascoe, & Richman, 2009). Article analysis found that many AAW use negative coping mechanisms such as rumination, negative racial regard, poor eating behaviors, and repressing feels of race-related events to combat stress when dealing with race-based events (Carter, Walker, Cutrona, Simons, & Beach, 2016; Hayman, McIntyre, & Abbey, 2015; Hill, & Hoggard, 2018). Positive coping mechanisms discussed to reduce stress and chronic disease included prayer and active coping to counteract the effects of rumination (Cooper, Thayer, & Waldstein, 2013; Hill, & Hoggard, 2018).