Date of Award
5-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
College/School
College for Community Health
Department/Program
Family Science and Human Development
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
Brad van Eeden-Moorefield
Committee Member
Pearl Stewart
Committee Member
Elizabeth Rivera Rodas
Abstract
This study investigates the portrayal of Black/African Americans in Health Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs, which predominantly follow Eurocentric models while examining how social and structural determinants (e.g., community context) influence stress levels, general health, and relationship satisfaction through two main objectives. Firstly, it aims to scrutinize the acknowledgment of biases towards non-Eurocentric communities in published Administration of Children and Families HMRE programs, analyzing 39 research studies. Secondly, it examines the interplay between perceived community context, stress as a mediator, general health, and relationship satisfaction among Black/African Americans across three distinct articles by testing hypothesized process models. Results for manuscript one reveal that most studies (89%) overlook the class or structural barriers and lack a clear theoretical foundation (85%), with only a tiny fraction (2.5%) incorporating culturally relevant design measures. Manuscripts two and three demonstrated complete mediation of stress in both cases. The models exhibit moderate to good fit across manuscript two, and a good fit for manuscript three, (n=439; GFI = .09; AGFI = .90, RMSEA .14), and (n=439; GFI = .99; AGFI = .95; RMSEA = .09), indicating the potential benefits of adopting a non-Eurocentric perspective in addressing health outcomes and reducing disparities among Black/African American populations.
File Format
Recommended Citation
Gyan, Elvis, "The Importance of Framing the Context of Black/African Americans' Livelihood to Enhance Health Outcomes and Mitigate Health Inequalities" (2024). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 1486.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/1486
