Correlations between Racialized Stress, Self-care, and Leadership Self-efficacy among Black School Leaders in the Deep South

Abstract

More than ever, the fight for equity has been felt by Black Americans who have been disproportionately affected by systematic inequalities in healthcare and social justice (Millett et al., 2020; Edmondson et al., 2020). It is impossible to ignore the impact that these inequalities may present for school communities, especially school leaders. The purpose of the study is to investigate correlations among self-care, racialized stress, and leadership self-efficacy of Black school leaders who are leading despite the challenge of racialized stress. The study seeks to answer the questions: 1) to what extent does racialized stress predict leadership self-efficacy; 2) to what extent does racialized stress predict self-care; 3) in what ways does self-care predict leadership self-efficacy; 4) when testing the full model, is there evidence that self-care mediated racialized stress and leadership self-efficacy? The study proposes a cross-sectional explanatory design to explain correlations between self-care, racialized stress, and leadership self-efficacy using a quantitative approach. No statistically significant correlations were found, leading to acceptance of the null hypothesis. The quality and frequency of self-care practices have no effect on the leadership self-efficacy of Black school leaders.