Narrative Journeys of Young Black Women with Eating Disorders: A Hidden Community among Us explores how the realities of three young black women who have experienced eating disorders since childhood were transformed, discussing the larger implications of disordered eating in underrepresented populations. People of all ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds are susceptible to their grips, yet black women and children are experiencing eating disorders and suffering in silence due to shame and stigma. Due to barriers such as the conventional thought that eating disorders do not occur in the black community, they are often not acknowledged, discussed, or treated properly. Stephanie Hawthorne argues that these women’s lived experiences substantiate the need for culturally sensitive and inclusive prevention, intervention, and care when it comes to mental health, and offers recommendations to schools, clinicians, parents, and adolescents to accomplish this goal. Scholars of communication, mental health, race studies, education, and medicine will find this book particularly useful.

The purpose of this narrative study was to understand the personal, social, and educational experiences of Black women who have experienced diagnosed eating disorders (EDs) during their adolescent years. Through their voices, this research sought to understand the development of EDs during adolescence, access to treatment services, and prevention and intervention of EDs as provided by community-based services, in effect, exploring the consequence of ethnic identity on the experiences of EDs in Black females. Adolescence marks a critical period in the understanding of eating pathology. What remains to be fully understood is the issue of EDs in the Black population and their particular impression on adolescent girls, as empirical studies are limited and antecedents may vary. The role of ethnicity may be a powerful consideration within the context of eating pathology. According to research, the degree of ethnicity and other sociocultural variables may either inhibit or influence ED onset (Flowers, Levesque, & Fischer, 2012). Such variables may play integral roles in body perception which have the potential to advance disordered eating (maladaptive) habits in individuals (Alegria et al., 2007; Bryla, 2003; Talleyrand, 2010; Taylor et al., 2013; Thatcher & Rhea, 2003). Ethnicity could also be a factor in treatment misdiagnosis or the lack of treatment seeking altogether (Cachelin, Rebeck, Veisel, & Striegel-Moore, 2001). Thus, this study sought to answer three broad research questions through participants’ stories: (a) How do young Black women describe their experiences with eating disorders? (b) How do their stories portray the influence of sociocultural elements and body issue images related to their development of an eating disorder? (c) How do these young women describe how they gained support for dealing with these eating disorders? Findings produced three major themes: (a) early triggers on self-concept and body image forged disordered eating as means of control, (b) social outcomes that delayed intervention, and (c) posttraumatic renaissance in the making. Four results emerged: (a) adolescence for these three women of color was a playground for the onset of EDs when the co-influence of psychosocial comorbidities, stress from trauma, and other salient factors are present, worsening self-esteem; (b) cultural and ethnic differences heighten body image concerns and ED symptomatology; (c) control appears to be the goal of the game, not food; and (d) racially stereotyped thinking exasperated disordered eating practices hindering early intervention. Recommendations for action are suggested for schools and community services, clinicians, and parents. Recommendations for further research are also provided.

Describing her struggle as a black woman with an eating disorder that is consistently portrayed as a white woman's problem, this insightful and moving narrative traces the background and factors that caused her bulimia. Moving coast to coast, she tries to escape her self-hatred and obsession by never slowing down, unaware that she is caught in downward spiral emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Finally she can no longer deny that she will die if she doesn't get help, overcome her shame, and conquer her addiction. But seeking help only reinforces her negative self-image, and she discovers her race makes her an oddity in the all-white programs for eating disorders. This memoir of her experiences answers many questions about why black women often do not seek traditional therapy for emotional problems.

The Ethos of Black Motherhood in America: Only White Women Get Pregnant examines the ethos of Black and white mothers in America's racialized society. Kimberly C. Harper argues that the current Black maternal health crisis is not a new one, but an existing one rooted in the disregard for Black wombs dating back to America's history with chattel slavery. Examining the reproductive laws that controlled the reproductive experiences of black women, Harper provides a fresh insight into the “bad black mother” trope that Black feminist scholars have theorized and argues that the controlling images of black motherhood are a creation of the American nation-state. In addition to a discussion of black motherhood, Harper also explores the image of white motherhood as the center of the landscape of motherhood. Scholars of communication, gender studies, women’s studies, history, and race studies will find this book particularly useful.

This book examines media and clinical discourses and their impact on women with PCOS. Findings from the study reveal that while women with PCOS have limited agency in constructing and representing their identities and ontologies in traditional media, by networking in participatory new media, these women can reclaim their agency.

This book focuses on reproductive justice through a culturally-centered and intersectional lens. The autoethnographic nature of each chapter allows contributors to unpack issues surrounding reproductive justice from their perspectives and allows readers to look towards understanding the issue from a personal and structural level.

Mental Health among Higher Education Faculty, Administrators, and Graduate Studentsaddresses how many academics who experience mental distress or mental illness are afraid to speak out because of cultural stigma and fears of career repercussions. Many academics’ reluctance to publicly disclose their struggles complicates attempts to understand their experiences through research or popular media, or to develop targeted mental health resources and institutional policies. This volume builds on the existing studies in this greatly under-researched area of mental health among faculty, administrators, and graduate students in higher education. The chapters’ research findings will help institutions communicate about mental health in culturally-competent and person-centered ways; create work environments conducive to mental well-being; and support their academic employees who have mental health challenges. This book argues that discussions of health and wellness, equity, workload expectations and productivity, and campus diversity must also cover chronic illness and disability, which include mental health and mental illness.