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There is currently a gap in the literature that explicitly connects Black feminist thought with psychological theory, research, or intervention. This article review aims to assist in filling the gap and inspire scholars to actively utilize the knowledge of Black feminism and apply it to culturally specific mental health resources for Black women. There is a need for a new generation of Black feminists to intentionally center Black women’s mental health in psychological research and therapeutic practices. Black women’s mental health is an important part of Black feminism, and accordingly psychological theory, research, and intervention should actively incorporate Black feminist thought. This article seeks to call attention to specific ways Black women can preserve and strengthen their mental health and maintain resiliency. Specifically, this review highlights three Black feminist-informed strategies that can aid in supporting Black women’s mental health: practicing essential/critical affirmations, raising Black consciousness, and intentional self-definition.

Feelings of defeat and entrapment are significant risk factors for various mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and suicidality. However, limited studies have intentionally examined these constructs exclusively within a sample of Black women. The current study aims to investigate whether the endorsement of hope can serve as a protective factor against feelings of defeat and entrapment among Black women. About 266 (M age = 34) cisgender African American/Black women were surveyed, and results indicated that hope negatively moderated the relationship between defeat and entrapment, suggesting that hope served as a protective factor by weakening the relationship between defeat and entrapment. Future research and clinical implications are discussed. Plain language summary: Primary agenda This study aims to critically investigate the ways in which hope can protect against feelings of defeat and entrapment among Black women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Research has demonstrated that a lack of social support is related to suicide risk. This study examines perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, of the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide, as mechanisms of the social support-suicide relationship in college students. Method: The study consisted of 207 students from a Midwestern university. Data were collected from 2007 to 2008. Two multiple mediation analyses were conducted to examine whether perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness mediated the relationship between indices of social support and suicide ideation. Results: Perceived burdensomeness mediated the relationships between perceived social support and suicide ideation (95% confidence interval [CI] -0.02 to -0.00, effect size = -0.01) and social connectedness and suicide ideation (95% CI -0.03 to -0.00, effect size = -0.03). Thwarted belongingness did not mediate either relationship. Conclusions: Results suggest that a lack of social support could lead to perceptions of being a burden on others, which could lead to suicide ideation.

A possible relationship between Joiner's (2005) interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior and optimism was investigated by examining the ability of optimism to act as a moderator of perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and acquired capability to engage in self-injury in the prediction of suicidal ideation. Results supported hypotheses that optimism would serve as a moderator of the effects of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness in the prediction of suicidal ideation; however, similar results were not found regarding the acquired capability to engage in self-injury. How optimism might play a role in alleviating suicidal ideation and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

Positive psychology has garnered considerable scholarly interest recently and has been suggested to hold promise in the application to suicide research and prevention; however, empirical research has lagged behind these suggestions. This is the first study to examine the relationship between hope and a specific theory of suicide in African Americans. It was hypothesized that (1) hope would negatively predict the interpersonal suicide risk factors of burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness; and positively predict acquired capability to enact suicide; (2) hope would negatively predict suicidal ideation; and (3) the interpersonal suicide risk factors would predict suicidal ideation. Results were primarily as predicted. Implications for hope theory and Joiner's theory of suicidal behavior are discussed, as well as implications for clinical practice.

The current study hypothesized that (1) hope would negatively predict burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and acquired capability to enact lethal injury; (2) hope would negatively predict suicidal ideation; and (3) the interpersonal suicide risk factors would predict suicidal ideation. Results indicated that hope negatively predicted burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, but positively predicted acquired capability to enact suicide. Contrary to our second hypothesis, hope did not predict suicidal ideation, but interpersonal risk factors for suicide predicted suicidal ideation. Results are discussed in terms of implications for hope theory and Joiner's (2005) interpersonal risk factors for suicide, and for clinical practice.

Eating disorders are thought to occur less among African-American women than among women of other ethnic groups. Ninety-one clinicians read 1 of 3 passages (differing only with regards to the girl's race: African-American, Caucasian, or Hispanic) describing disturbed eating patterns of a fictional character named Mary. Participants were then asked to indicate if they thought Mary had a problem and to rate her anxiety, depression, and eating disorder symptoms based upon the passage they had read. The results suggest that clinicians may have race-based stereotypes about eating disorders that could impede their detection of symptoms in African-American girls.

The present study examined whether therapist access to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) predicted favorable treatment outcome, above and beyond other assessment measures. A manipulated assessment design was used, in which patients were randomly assigned either to a group in which therapists had access to their MMPI-2 data or to a group without therapist access to such information. Illness severity, improvement ratings, number of sessions attended, and premature termination were indicators of therapy outcome. Results indicated that therapist access to the MMPI-2 data did not add to the prediction of positive treatment outcome beyond that predicted by other measures in this setting. Findings from this initial study suggest that, compared with other resources, perhaps in clinical settings with an emphasis on diagnosis-based and evidence-based treatment, the MMPI-2 may not provide incrementally valid information. However, these effects warrant replication across different settings and samples. Guidelines for future studies are discussed.

The rise in suicide by African Americans in the United States is directly attributable to the dramatic, nearly three-fold increase in suicide rates of African American males. Gibbs (1997) hypothesized high social support, religiosity, and southern residence are protective factors against suicidality for Black people. This hypothesis was tested among 5,125 participants from the National Comorbidity Survey; 299 were African American males. In this study we hypothesized that there would be significantly lower suicidality in the South, and social support and religiosity would mediate this relationship. Our results indicate that Southern region is indeed a significant predictor of suicidal symptoms in African American men, such that suicidal symptoms were lower in the South, but religiosity and social support did not account for this effect. Other potential mediators were also examined.

The current study examined compensation and capitalization treatment models with specific reference to problem-solving appraisal and problem-solving treatment of suicidal behavior (M. D. Rudd, T. Joiner, & M. H. Rajab, 2000). A sample of 98 young adults (mean age = 22), who had recently attempted suicide or ideated about suicide to the degree that they came to clinical attention, were randomly assigned to either problem-solving or control treatment. Participants with poorer problem-solving appraisal at baseline responded better than did participants with greater problem-solving appraisal to problem-solving treatment at 6-month follow-up, as would be predicted by the compensation model. Results suggest that treatment of suicidality for individuals with problem-solving skill deficits may be most effective by targeting these deficits rather than capitalizing on strengths.

The authors examined Hammen's (1991) model of stress generation in depression in a Black adolescent population. The longitudinal sample of 1,766 participants entered the study at ages 13 to 18. Stressful events and depressive and other symptom occurrence over a 1-year period were analyzed. Results supported the stress generation model. Depressive symptoms were associated with an increase in negative stressful events. In addition, the study supported the symptom specificity of stress generation to depression versus anxious and conduct disorder symptoms.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2006.04.007 Byline: Thomas E. Joiner, Natalie J. Sachs-Ericsson, LaRicka R. Wingate, Jessica S. Brown, Michael D. Anestis, Edward A. Selby Keywords: Physical abuse; Sexual abuse; Suicide; Family history Abstract: Research to date has indicated that childhood abuse is associated with suicide, though little research has examined the unique contribution of specific types of abuse to suicidal behavior. We predict that childhood physical and violent sexual abuse will have a greater effect on suicide attempts than molestation and verbal abuse. Author Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1270, USA Article History: Received 16 November 2005; Revised 11 April 2006; Accepted 26 April 2006

This article reviews the interpersonal-psychological theory of attempted and completed suicide and describes its applications in suicide risk assessment, crisis intervention, and skills-based psychotherapies. Three components are necessary, but not sufficient, for an individual to die by suicide: (1) the acquired capability to enact lethal self-injury, (2) a sense that one is a burden on others, and (3) the sense that one does not belong to a valued social group. We suggest that therapeutic interventions should focus on ascertaining the presence of these components and work to amend the cognitive distortions, negative interpersonal response styles, and ineffective coping behaviors that serve to maintain suicidal urges. Keywords: suicide; multiple attempters; risk assessment; treatment

Does therapist availability affect the frequency of patient-initiated between-session phone contacts? There are few empirical data to inform therapists on this question: This study was designed to redress this literature gap. Results demonstrated that in general, therapists' availability policies did not strongly relate to patient-initiated contacts. However, there were some exceptions: The more willing therapists were to receive crisis intervention and mental status update calls, the fewer calls they received. Additionally, when therapists were less willing to be contacted between sessions, patients with personality disorders and/or poor global functioning tended to make more nonemergency calls to the therapist, whereas patients with elevated suicidality tended to make fewer nonemergency calls between sessions. The implications of the results on therapists' policies and patients' expectations are discussed.

Shneidman (e.g., 1998) has theorized that psychache--general psychological and emotional pain that reaches intolerable intensity--is an important suicide-related variable, and indeed, represents a source of suicidal behavior. This conceptualization, while prominent and clinically and intuitively appealing, has received relatively little empirical scrutiny. In this study, we determined whether an index closely related to psychache, psychological quality of life, would display a special and resilient association to suicidality among 60 adult psychiatric outpatients in Brazil. All patients underwent structured clinical interviews and completed various clinical and quality-of-life measures. We found that the association between psychological quality of life and suicidality remained, even when depression, hopelessness, and other domains of quality of life were controlled. Psychache appears to deserve its place among key suicide-related variables, and deserves the attention of clinicians working with suicidal people.