Enhancing counseling services for Black college women attending HBCUs

Abstract

Black women’s college experiences are often compounded with psychological stressors such as race- and gender-related oppression, which may influence psychosocial adjustment. Generally, college students experiencing difficulties with psychosocial adjustment will often access college counseling services to manage their experiences. However, for many Black college women, issues related to mistrust of mental health practitioners, cultural barriers, economic factors, and reliance on friends and family result in their underutilization of professional services. Using an experimental design composed of an intervention group and a non-treatment control group with pretest and posttest measures, this study examined the effectiveness of a psychoeducational group intervention involving 20 undergraduate Black college women. Results revealed that after the 10-week group program, participants decreased their external locus of control significantly compared with members of the control group. The difference remained statistically significant after control variables were taken into account. However, the data failed to support the hypotheses that the intervention would have a statistically significant effect on perceived stress and increasing active coping. Although this study was conducted with a small sample of Black college women who attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), the findings offer preliminary data on the effectiveness of culture-relevant-based group interventions with Black women aimed at enhancing psychosocial competence and reducing stress.