Enhancing Psychosocial Competence among Black Women in College

Black women who surfer from a variety of mental health symptoms, which are persistent and at times debilitating, comprise a large target population for social workers. Although social work has a history of intervening with black women in mental health, there is a lack of theoretical and empirical knowledge concerning what is most effective with this population (Gutierrez, 1990; Hopps & Pinderhughes, 1999; Lewis & Ford, 1991; Padgett, Patrick, Burns, & Schlesinger, 1994). Most of the clinical studies concerning black women were based on a pathological perspective. These studies focused on maladaptive behaviors and negative mental health outcomes of black women and included academic problems, substance abuse, dysfunctional family cohesion and adaptation and coping responses to stress, domestic violence, and problems associated with single parenthood (Belle, 1990; Brown, 1990; Neighbors, Jackson, Bowman, & Gurin, 1983; Taylor, Chatters, Tucker, & Lewis, 1990). Few practice or research models have focused on the ability of black women to deal competently with their oppressive realities, which often lead to psychological and social dysfunction. Mental health researchers have identified the concepts of psychosocial competence (that is, locus of control, coping, and self-efficacy) and cultural diversity (that is, race, sex, and culture) as constructs central to improving models for understanding and enhancing the psychological well-being of black Americans in mental health treatment (Tyler, Brome, & Williams, 1991; Tyler & Pargament, 1981). This article examines the effectiveness of a psychoeducational group program for black undergraduate college women to enhance psychosocial competence, including locus of control, active coping, and stress reduction. The model used literary works authored by black women as an innovative technique for enhancing the group process. College Experience as a Stressor College is a stressful experience for most students. Generally, college years are a time when young adults struggle with newfound freedom and negotiate developmental tasks, focusing on interpersonal relationships and academic concerns (Beard, Elmore, & Lange, 1982). Although black college students typically encounter similar developmental tasks as their white counterparts, they also experience additional stressors at predominantly white institutions, such as recurrent problems of hostility and racism, poor rapport with faculty, inadequate social lives, and academic failure. These developmental stressors are said to be indications of a crisis in psychosocial adjustment symptomatic of a more serious identity crisis. Thus, black college women provide an appropriate sample with which to study the nature and development of coping patterns. Literature Review The concept of psychosocial competence has received increasing attention in the mental health practice literature because it emphasizes positive mental health or adaptive functioning rather than psychopathology (Germain, 1977; Maluccio, 2000; Tyler, 1978). Psychosocial competence is derived from the ecological paradigm for viewing human functioning, which draws from fields such as psychodynamic psychology, family systems, anthropology, organizational behavior, and learning and development theories (Maluccio, Washitz, & Libassi, 1999). Whereas ecology provides a way of perceiving and understanding human beings and their functioning in their environment, knowledge about competence development offers specific guidelines for professional practice and service delivery. In social work, as in other fields, competence is generally defined as the repertoire of skills that enable a person to function effectively. Thus, competence-centered social work practice is conceptualized as a multifaceted configuration that includes a set of self attitudes, world attributes, and behavioral attributes designed to promote effective functioning in human beings by focusing on their unique coping and adaptive patterns, actual or potential strengths, natural helping networks, life experiences, and environmental resources as major instruments of intervention (Maluccio, 2000; Tyler, 1991). …