Integrating the intersectionality framework and stress theory, this study identifies the stressors and psychosocial resources contributing to the physical and psychological health status of African American women. Using the National Survey of American Life ( N = 2,077), the authors examine the relationship between stress exposures, psychological resources, and health among African American women. The results show that not all psychological resources buffered the deleterious health effects of multiple stress exposures and that the effects of stress and psychological resources differ by health domain. One important finding is that chronic stress negatively affects both mental and physical health, even after adjusting for other stress exposures and psychological resources. Traditional forms of psychological resources, such as social support, mastery, and self-esteem, do not completely ameliorate the negative effects of stress and, in some cases, amplify the negative effects of stress on health. The findings demonstrate the need to disentangle the differential impact of psychosocial factors on African American women’s health.

The environmental justice (EJ) literature can benefit from comparative analysis that helps to identify conditions for more and less successful outcomes. A data set of 50 EJ cases in the U.S. was developed with high and low remediation as the outcome. Causal conditions were selected on theoretical grounds, and included five mobilizing strategies (local and state government coalitions, federal government attention, civil disobedience, litigation, and national NGO support) and three general conditions (absence of industry countermobilization, presence of water pollution, and proposed or new siting). Qualitative comparative analysis and other analyses indicated that all causal conditions were found in the high-remediation cases but that some conditions (water pollution and local-state coalitions) were more consistently associated with the high-remediation outcome. The analysis points to the value of systematic studies of the factors that affect local EJ outcomes and to the need for better case study collections.

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