The purpose of this research was to examine the psychometric properties of the Giscombe Superwoman Schema Questionnaire. Three separate studies conducted with 739 African American women provided preliminary evidence that the Questionnaire's factor structure aligns with the Superwoman Schema Conceptual Framework and has good reliability. In addition, it is positively associated with perceived stress, depressive symptoms, using food to cope with stress, poor sleep quality, and physical inactivity. This study provides preliminary evidence to suggest that the Giscombe Superwoman Schema Questionnaire is psychometrically sound; Superwoman Schema is associated with health behaviors and psychological states that may increase risk for illness.African American women experience disproportionately high rates of stress-related chronic health conditions compared to non-Hispanic white women. They are more likely to be overweight or obese and have higher rates of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and morbidity related to a variety of other stress-related conditions (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). African American women are also at higher risk for stress-related physiologic aging compared to white women (Geronimus, Hicken, Keene, & Bound, 2006;Geronimus et al., 2010), even after adjusting for socioeconomic factors.Over the past twenty years, mounting evidence has demonstrated links between psychological stress and adverse health outcomes among African American women (Allen

Racial discrimination has been linked to allostatic load (i.e., cumulative biological stress) among African American women. However, limited attention has been given to psychosocial processes involved in the stress response—critical for understanding biological pathways to health—in studies examining racial discrimination as a social determinant of health. We examined whether the superwoman schema (SWS), a multidimensional culture‐specific framework characterizing psychosocial responses to stress among African American women, modifies the association between racial discrimination and allostatic load. We used purposive sampling to recruit a community sample of African American women ages 30–50 from five San Francisco Bay Area counties (n = 208). Path analysis was used to test for interactions while accounting for the covariance among SWS subscales using both linear and quadratic models. Significant interactions were observed between racial discrimination and four of the five SWS subscales. Feeling obligated to present an image of strength and an obligation to suppress emotions were each protective whereas feeling an intense motivation to succeed and feeling an obligation to help others exacerbated the independent health risk associated with experiencing racial discrimination. Our findings affirm the need to consider individual variability in coping and potentially other psychosocial processes involved in the stress response process, and offer several insights that may help elucidate the mechanisms by which racial discrimination gets “under the skin.”

In order to prepare all teachers for working with the increasing number of English-as-a-secondlanguage (ESL) students in the US, researchers have explored what teachers need to know and pointed out that 'just good teaching' is not enough. In this article, we described our effort to design and deliver professional development sessions based on key features of effective professional development to facilitate teachers to move beyond 'just good teaching'. In addition, we examined the impact of the professional development on teachers and the ESL students in the school district. The participants included 22 teachers from one school district in the US who participated in 46 hours of professional development sessions over the course of one year. Findings indicated that the research-based, needs-oriented professional development provided teachers with useful strategies and resources. ESL student performance data also demonstrated the effectiveness and impact of the professional development. Implications were drawn to further enhance the collaboration between university and school districts, and between ESL teachers and regular classroom teachers, for the achievement of all ESL students.

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On the front cover: The cover image, submitted by Allen et al., is from the original article “Racial discrimination, the superwoman schema, and allostatic load: exploring an integrative stress‐coping model among African American women,” https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14188.