UC Berkeley

Background and objectives

African American women experience faster telomere shortening (i.e., cellular aging) compared with other racial-gender groups. Prior research demonstrates that race and gender interact to influence culturally specific norms for responding to socially-relevant stress and other stress-coping processes, which may affect healthy aging.

Research design and methods

Data are from African American Women's Heart & Health Study participants who consented to DNA extraction (n = 140). Superwoman Schema (SWS) was measured using 5 validated subscales: presenting strength, emotion suppression, resisting vulnerability, motivation to succeed, and obligation to help others. Racial identity was measured using 3 subscales from the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity: racial centrality, private regard, and public regard. Relative telomere length (rTL) was measured using DNA extracted from blood samples. Path analysis tested associations and interactions between SWS and racial identity dimensions with rTL.

Results

For SWS, higher resistance to being vulnerable predicted longer telomeres. For racial identity, high private regard predicted longer telomeres while high public regard predicted shorter telomeres. Interactions were found between public regard and 2 SWS dimensions: among women with high public regard, emotion suppression (β = 0.20, p < .05) and motivation to succeed (β = 0.18, p < .05) were associated with longer rTL. The interaction between high centrality and emotion suppression predicted shorter rTL (β = -0.17, p < .05).

Discussion and implications

Culturally specific responses to gendered racism and racial identity, developed early in life and shaped over the life course, are important psychosocial determinants of cellular aging among African American women.