H. Shellae Versey | Fordham University (original) (raw)

Papers by H. Shellae Versey

Soc Personal Psychol Compass, 2024

Social psychology has focused on patterns of inequality (e.g., discrimination, stereotyping, stig... more Social psychology has focused on patterns of inequality (e.g., discrimination, stereotyping, stigma, intergroup relations) that underlie well-documented disparities, often without engaging with the structural and intersectional patterns underlying these experiences. In this paper, we draw on intersectionality theory and research to illustrate how approaches to studying inequity and disparities in social psychology reflect a Western perspective, and structures work to uphold the status quo. It is argued that structures

H. Shellae Versey, 2024

Confronting whiteness could complement and amplify the study of Critical Race Theory and enhance ... more Confronting whiteness could complement and amplify the study of Critical Race Theory and enhance psychologists' capacity to effectively study and address health and social issues. Whiteness is a racialized social system and a set of beliefs that uphold White American social supremacy and the oppression of populations of color. We discuss how prior scholarship has addressed whiteness and we illustrate how whiteness can harm health and well-being among White Americans and broader society. By documenting the negative effects of whiteness, we encourage divestment from the construction of reality that inequitably produces power and privilege, and ultimately, threatens society. Understanding how whiteness operates will aid the development of interventions and policies that reduce the inequity that results from whiteness and the enduring nature of racism. Finally, we call on psychologists to actively divest from systems of whiteness within our field; otherwise, we are complicit in how whiteness hurts society.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple groups faced increased risks for negative health and morta... more During the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple groups faced increased risks for negative health and mortality. Using an intersectional framework, the current study explores how the global pandemic impacted lower-income women living in the United States through access to housing. Findings indicate several challenges remaining stably housed during the pandemic. Major themes included: (1) High-Risk Survival Economies, (2) Landlord Stress, Deception, and Exclusion, (3) Landlord Harassment, (4) Low Levels of Formal and Informal Support, (5) Housing as a Health Risk Factor, and (6) Resilience. These themes are explored through four in-depth narrative accounts. Implications for health and policy are discussed. Future research that examines and engages with both direct (e.g., material scarcity) and indirect (e.g., discrimination) pathways that connect housing to health are strongly encouraged.

Lower-income Black and Latina women with children are especially likely to be impacted by housing... more Lower-income Black and Latina women with children are especially likely to be impacted by housing insecurity and instability and may engage in increased risk-taking behaviors to prevent housing loss, eviction, or displacement. This article explores housing insecurity as a system of exposure that confers survival-based risk that converges in the lives of women already experiencing some form of precarity. A discussion of vulnerability links disproportionate risk to the current social order, and an expanded reframing of risk is proposed. Finally, historical examples highlight how traditional and contemporary systems of gatekeeping and surveillance serve to increase housing instability and further undermine access to housing for those who need it most. The consistent focus on individual risk in many biomedical models of health obscures the larger issue of fundamental risk factors that lie behind the risk-health relationship. Should risk be conflated with poor individual decision-making, rather than action taken out of need, scarcity, or desperation? The implications of this question for clinicians, researchers, and policymakers are discussed.

Gentrification, Health, and Intermediate Pathways: How Distinct Inequality Mechanisms Impact Health Disparities, 2022

Gentrification yields a variety of effects, yet the mechanisms linking gentrification to health a... more Gentrification yields a variety of effects, yet the mechanisms linking gentrification to health are unclear. Although quantitative research has helped to identify some patterns, the processes whereby neighborhood dynamics impact health are layered and span multiple levels of health—individual, family, and community.

According to research describing large-scale drivers of health, inequality (e.g., income and social) is a significant risk factor for worse health, morbidity, and mortality. Drawing from an inequality-health framework, this paper explores how inequality created by gentrification (e.g., segregated pockets of wealth alongside relative deprivation) harms health and well-being. The current study presents findings from lower-income African American women across 20 U.S. cities, and examines pathways by which gentrification increases inequality and stress for residents living in gentrifying areas. Results indicate that gentrification contributes to both direct (e.g., material scarcity) and indirect (e.g., displacement, distrust, lack of belonging) pathways that impact health, supporting mediation via four major pathways. Implications for further research, theorization, and policy are discussed.

Managing Intersectional Invisibility and Hypervisibility During the Transition to College Among First-Generation Women of Color, 2022

In the current study, we examined the transition to college for first-generation women of color. ... more In the current study, we examined the transition to college for first-generation women of color. Previous studies of first-year college experiences among groups with minoritized statuses have primarily focused on first-generation students or students of color separately, with little consideration of women within these groups generally, and first-generation women of color specifically. Drawing from work in Black feminist scholarship, we explored the transition to college from the perspective of firstgeneration women of color college students, examining the resources, strengths, and challenges experienced during this transition. Fourteen self-identified first-generation women of color students participated in semi-structured interviews. Respondents were asked a series of open-ended questions about their first-year college experiences, including family dynamics, social support, and mental health. Using thematic analysis, we identified five major themes-Identity, Imposter Phenomenon, Mixed Formal Support, Complicated Family Support, and Friendship, Social, and Emotional Support. Our findings suggest that first-generation women of color college students encounter unique challenges that warrant further investigation. Furthermore, we recommend structural programming (e.g., diversity initiatives), university policies (e.g., need-blind admissions), and increased faculty and staff diversity as strategies that will benefit all students and provide support for first-generation women of color college students. Keywords first-generation, women of color, college transition, imposter phenomenon "I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me."-R. Ellison, Invisible Man (1952, p. xxvi)

Women's Health Issues, 2017

Qualitative Psychology, 2021

While place-based methods are increasingly being used to explore why place matters for health, ho... more While place-based methods are increasingly being used to explore why place matters for health, how places matter for mental health and psychological wellness is less understood. Overall, approaches that consider community, environmental, and neighborhood-level factors have been taken up to a lesser extent by psychologists. Yet methods that situate human behavior within a spatial context have the potential to expand psychological and interdisciplinary inquiry aimed at improving mental and cognitive health. This article presents a brief overview of one type of mobile method, the go-along walk, that can be used with a variety of technologies and complementary methods to better understand how individuals respond to places and environmental stimuli, including place-based exposures. Implications for broadening the range of research questions and translational applications are discussed.

Women's Health Issues , 2017

By 2060, one in four Americans will be over the age of 65 (U.S. Census, 2015). At the same time, ... more By 2060, one in four Americans will be over the age of 65 (U.S. Census, 2015). At the same time, the pool of available family caregivers is expected to decline despite an increase in care need (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). Considering this trend, the biggest issues facing the nation are: Who will care for us as we age? What does this workforce look like? And how do we best support a diverse network of caregivers? This paper suggests recognizing caregiving as a women’s health issue, and
integrating formal and informal care as next steps toward comprehensive care policy.

Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2021

Assessing the impact of climate change requires analyzing humans generally, as well as identifyin... more Assessing the impact of climate change requires analyzing humans generally, as well as identifying unique and elevated risks among subgroups. Incorporating intersectional approaches (e.g., those focused on issues of poverty, place, and race) into public policy may highlight how communities and individuals with fewer resources experience compounded vulnerability to climate-related risks. An intersectional framework yields implications for research and policy in two ways, both broadly and specifically for marginalized groups. First, climate change research and policy would benefit from a more active articulation of intersectionality in its models of adaptation and vulnerability by recognizing groups at high risk for negative outcomes, including distress and displacement. Second, as psychologists document mental health outcomes associated with climate change, engaging in cross-disciplinary discussions will strengthen strategies aimed at reducing mental health disparities.

Journal of Community Psychology, 2020

Previous research suggests that empathy can be cultivated by social ideals and relationships with... more Previous research suggests that empathy can be cultivated by social ideals and relationships with people. The current study examines family importance and religious importance as correlates of affective empathy, perspective taking, and generativity among a sample of adults aged 18 to 35 (N = 722). Given the ethnic and racial diversity represented by Millennials and Generation Z, the moderating role of racial group membership is explored as well. Results indicate that family importance is positively associated with affective empathy, perspective taking, and generativity for the overall sample, though the relationship is particularly strong for non-Hispanic whites. Religious importance is significantly related to affective empathy and generativity (not perspective taking), primarily among Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color. Due to the increasing visibility of victimization towards socially vulnerable groups, it is important to understand how attitudes oriented towards helping and empathizing with others are fostered. Implications for further research are discussed.

K E Y W O R D S caring attitudes, empathy, family importance, generativity, race, religious importance J Community Psychol. 2020;1-17. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jcop

Leisure Studies, 2020

One important, yet understudied aspect of refugees’ resettlement experience is social participati... more One important, yet understudied aspect of refugees’ resettlement experience is social participation. How are new social relationships created and maintained during the transition to the United States? This exploratory study examines social participation among a sample of recently resettled refugees. Twenty face-to-face interviews were conducted with Iraqi and Syrian refugees in a Connecticut resettlement community. Primary social activities included attending small family gatherings and worship services.
Several constraints emerged, including the transition to American life, little leisure time (i.e., time scarcity), maintaining dual time schedules, and varying levels of social network connections as central barriers to more active social participation. Overall, findings indicate that having less unstructured, leisure time results in lower levels of social participation and fewer friendships.

Within-group differences find that some participants report feeling more socially isolated, and generally less supported, compared to others (e.g., women and single men). This research suggests that a lack of leisure time and limited social networks may hinder or delay relationship formation and community building, and should be explored further.

Social Science & Medicine, 2018

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Increasingly, older adults desire to remain in their communities for a... more BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
Increasingly, older adults desire to remain in their communities for as long as possible, referred to as "aging in place". While much of the aging in place literature focuses on housing specifically, there is a growing sense that social capital and community connectedness are important to the aging in place experience. The current study explores social capital in a gentrifying community to better understand the effects of rapid neighborhood change on older, African American adults.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS:
Using a qualitative approach, group interviews were collected across nine senior housing sites (N = 98) in Central Harlem, a historically African American neighborhood in New York City. Research questions examined how older adults 'staying put' in a gentrifying neighborhood perceive changes in their social networks and larger community.

RESULTS:
Major themes included shifting racial dynamics of the neighborhood, disruption of social ties, lack of intergenerational social cohesion and lack of social spaces for older adults, revealing a complex narrative of the network consequences of neighborhood change.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS:
This study extends previous research, highlighting specific ways in which gentrification compromises aspects of social capital in a once predominantly Black neighborhood.

Social Science & Medicine, 2019

Racism has been examined in its many forms. Scholarship regarding how individuals personally expe... more Racism has been examined in its many forms. Scholarship regarding how individuals personally experience, cope with, and manage racial oppression is still developing. The term “appropriated racial oppression” reframes the construct “internalized racism” as a process whereby members of a group appropriate a dominant group's ideology, adapt their behavior, and perceive a subordinate status as deserved, natural, and inevitable. The expression of appropriated racial oppression is based on a variety of complicated and interacting processes, such as incentivized societal norms, critical consciousness, and racial socialization. We conceptualize appropriated racial oppression as a mediated process that yields both direct and indirect health outcomes for both non-dominant and dominant groups. The latter is critical because little research examines how racism affects dominant groups and their health. In this commentary, we examine two examples where appropriating racial oppression may confer both negative and adaptive outcomes. Although we highlight examples rooted in White and Black racial experiences, we briefly consider implications for intersectional and multiple marginalized identities as well. Future research recommendations for psychology, public health and interdisciplinary research are discussed.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019

Neighborhoods within age-friendly cities and communities are an important factor in shaping the e... more Neighborhoods within age-friendly cities and communities are an important factor in shaping the everyday lives of older adults. Yet, less is known about how neighborhoods experiencing change influence the ability to age in place. One type of rapid neighborhood change occurring across major cities nationally and globally is gentrification, a process whereby the culture of an existing neighborhood changes through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. Few studies have considered the impact of gentrification on older adults, who are among the most vulnerable to economic and social pressures that often accompany gentrification. The current study explores one consequence of gentrification, indirect displacement. While gentrification-induced displacement can refer to the physical (e.g., direct) displacement of residents moving out of a neighborhood due to rising housing costs, it also references the replacement of the unique character and social identity of a neighborhood (e.g., indirect displacement). We examine perceptions of the latter, characterized by perceived cultural shifts and housing concerns among adults aging in place in a gentrifying neighborhood in New York City. The implications of indirect displacement for displacement risk and aging precarity are discussed as potential threats to aging in place in age-friendly cities.

This study examines the link between negative work–family spillover and metabolic risk factors ov... more This study examines the link between negative work–family spillover and metabolic risk factors over a 9-year period. Data from two waves of the Midlife in the United States Survey were used to explore relationships between negative work–family spillover and four indicators of metabolic syndrome—blood pressure, triglycerides, body mass index, and glucose levels. In a sample of full-time working men and women (N = 630), increased negative spillover at baseline significantly predicted higher body mass index nearly a decade later, with a marginally significant effect for triglyceride levels. Increases in spillover also body mass index and glucose levels at follow-up. This study extends research tying work–life spillover to health and suggests that further investigation is needed to fully understand the long-term effects of work stress.

Despite a large body of research examining the impact of discrimination on health, the ways in wh... more Despite a large body of research examining the impact of discrimination on health, the ways in which perceived discrimination may lead to disparate health outcomes through a sense of self and system consciousness is less understood. The current paper is concerned with both mental and physical health consequences of discrimination, as well as mediating pathways among African American and White women. Indirect effects analyses examine mediating paths from discrimination to health outcomes via structural awareness and self-esteem, using data from the Women's Life Path Study (N ¼ 237). Our findings suggest that discrimination is both directly and indirectly associated with health outcomes for both Black and White women, mediated by individual (self-esteem) and group-level (structural awareness) processes. Evidence from this study indicates that discrimination is associated with heightened structural awareness, as well as lower self-esteem e both of which are related to poorer health. Discrimination negatively affected health across three domains, although the mechanisms varied somewhat for Black and White women. Broad implications of this research for interdisciplinary scholarship on the effects of discrimination on health and health disparities are discussed.

Despite a large body of research examining the impact of discrimination on health, the ways in wh... more Despite a large body of research examining the impact of discrimination on health, the
ways in which perceived discrimination may lead to disparate health outcomes through a sense
of self and system consciousness is less understood. The current paper is concerned with both
mental and physical health consequences of discrimination, as well as mediating pathways
among African American and White women. Indirect effects analyses examine mediating paths
from discrimination to health outcomes via structural awareness and self-esteem, using data from
the Women’s Life Path Study (N = 237). Our findings suggest that discrimination is both directly
and indirectly associated with health outcomes for both Black and White women, mediated by
individual (self-esteem) and group-level (structural awareness) processes. Evidence from this
study indicates that discrimination is associated with heightened structural awareness, as well as
lower self-esteem – both of which are related to poorer health. Discrimination negatively
affected health across three domains, although the mechanisms varied somewhat for Black and
White women. Broad implications of this research for interdisciplinary scholarship on the effects
of discrimination on health and health disparities are discussed.

Soc Personal Psychol Compass, 2024

H. Shellae Versey, 2024

Gentrification, Health, and Intermediate Pathways: How Distinct Inequality Mechanisms Impact Health Disparities, 2022

Managing Intersectional Invisibility and Hypervisibility During the Transition to College Among First-Generation Women of Color, 2022

Women's Health Issues, 2017

Qualitative Psychology, 2021

Women's Health Issues , 2017

Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2021

Journal of Community Psychology, 2020

K E Y W O R D S caring attitudes, empathy, family importance, generativity, race, religious importance J Community Psychol. 2020;1-17. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jcop

Leisure Studies, 2020

Social Science & Medicine, 2018

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS:
This study extends previous research, highlighting specific ways in which gentrification compromises aspects of social capital in a once predominantly Black neighborhood.

Social Science & Medicine, 2019

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019

Despite a large body of research examining the impact of discrimination on health, the ways in wh... more Despite a large body of research examining the impact of discrimination on health, the
ways in which perceived discrimination may lead to disparate health outcomes through a sense
of self and system consciousness is less understood. The current paper is concerned with both
mental and physical health consequences of discrimination, as well as mediating pathways
among African American and White women. Indirect effects analyses examine mediating paths
from discrimination to health outcomes via structural awareness and self-esteem, using data from
the Women’s Life Path Study (N = 237). Our findings suggest that discrimination is both directly
and indirectly associated with health outcomes for both Black and White women, mediated by
individual (self-esteem) and group-level (structural awareness) processes. Evidence from this
study indicates that discrimination is associated with heightened structural awareness, as well as
lower self-esteem – both of which are related to poorer health. Discrimination negatively
affected health across three domains, although the mechanisms varied somewhat for Black and
White women. Broad implications of this research for interdisciplinary scholarship on the effects
of discrimination on health and health disparities are discussed.