Betty L Wilson
Biographic Data
| ID | 929377 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Betty L Wilson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Betty L |
| FAMILY NAME | Wilson |
| SIGNATURE | WILSON B L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of South Carolina |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4660-557X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 45 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Addressing Police Brutality of Black Men
Through the broad use of technology such as phones and social media, people are more aware of various instances of police brutality. Specifically, police violence toward Black men continues to garner increased public scrutiny. The paper discusses the historical context of police violence toward Black men and the associated psychological trauma impact. The authors advocate for police reform using the Sanctuary Model of trauma-informed care approac…
From Cradle to Rocking Chair
Instant Trauma
From protection to self-reliance
This study examined the mediating role of perceived police legitimacy in the relationship between exposure to videos of police use-of-force and personal safety behaviors among Black emerging adult women. Using surveys from 152 participants, findings showed that greater exposure to police use-of-force videos was associated with decreased reliance on police for personal safety, and this relationship was mediated by perceptions of police legitimacy.…
In search of a soft life
My life matters here’
Understanding the Relationship Between Direct and Vicarious Police Contact and “The Talk”
Direct and vicarious police contact can be traumatic events, justifying the need for parents to prepare children for encounters with the police through a process known as “The Talk.” Police persistently target Black communities, and most research on “The Talk” is limited to Black families, so less is known about engagement in “The Talk” across different groups. Relying on a pooled sample of 8,842 racially diverse 8th to 10th-grade students, we ex…
Tired of being tired
The highly publicized murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 sparked public outrage and widespread discussion around anti-Black violence. While some studies have examined the effects of anti-Black violence exposure on mental health outcomes, there is a paucity of research that explores how these racially charged events contribute to cumulative stress and "weathering" for Black people, particularly. Informed by racial b…
The Talk I Received From My Parents, I Gave to My Little Brother
While much literature examines racial socialization in Black families, specifically "the Talk," few studies focus on this process during emerging adulthood. Guided by relational communication and racism-related stress theories, this qualitative study examined Black emerging adults' experiences of "the Talk," a specific form of racial socialization that prepares Black individuals for encounters with racism and policing, and its impact on their per…
“Take a Mental Break”
Given the repeated police killings of unarmed Black people and their increasing visibility because of recent technological advances, Black people are especially vulnerable to adverse mental health effects. However, little is known about how they attempt to cope with these incidents or how their efforts may affect their mental health. Informed by trauma theory and stress, appraisal, and coping theory, this study used semi-structured in-depth inter…
For Crying Out Loud
Ain't I a woman
Alarming statistics show that Black women in the United States (US) are disproportionately more likely to be killed by the police, and more likely to die during childbirth than their counterparts. However, despite growing attention to incidents of police killings and pregnancy-related deaths of Black women, there has been minimal effort to historically situate these inequities in the contexts of state-sanctioned violence. Coverage of these deadly…
Black and Blue
Because repeated incidents of police violence against unarmed Black people are increasingly visible, as a result of technological advances, there is growing need to understand their potentially traumatic mental health effects for other Black people. This narrative review provides an overview of critical race theory, the stress, appraisal, and coping theory, trauma theory, racial trauma theory, and emotional contagion theory to develop an integrat…
Am I Next
There is little research that explores the experiences of Black people exposed to police killings of other unarmed Blacks, despite the fact these incidents repeatedly and disproportionately affect this population. While some quantitative studies have examined the impacts of police violence exposure on mental health in recent years, there remains a dearth of in-depth qualitative research exploring the processes through which chronic exposures to p…
“Tone It Down”
While there is growing research on the structural and institutional barriers experienced by Black women faculty at predominantly White institutions (PWIs), little is known about the systemic marginalization faced by Black women doctoral students at these institutions, particularly those in doctoral social work programs. Given the increasing number of Black women doctoral students in social work programs at PWIs, there is a need to understand how …
Lessons Learned in Implementing an Aging Research Training Program for Underrepresented Minority Students
This brief report provides an overview of lessons learned through evaluation of the first five years of the NIA-funded South Carolina-Advancing Diversity in Aging Research (SC-ADAR) undergraduate program, whose goal is to increase the number of qualified underrepresented minority (URM) students who pursue scientific graduate studies in programs focusing on medicine, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and aging. Partnering with five…
Why Don’t We Learn About the Black Social Work Pioneers?” The Erasure of Black Social Workers’ Histories and Contributions—Implications for Social Work Education
While there is mounting research on the well-known white founders of social work, documentation of Black social work pioneers and their contributions is scarce – in both social work education and the broader telling of the profession's history. Given the systemic exclusion of Black social workers in the dominant narrative of social work history, there is a critical need to understand how social work education perpetuates and centers whiteness in …
Under the Brutal Watch
Though less discussed in the literature, slave patrols played a significant role in continuing and sustaining the system of slavery. While few scholars have dedicated attention to exploring the history of slave patrols in the United States (US), there remains a dearth of research analyzing the slave patrol system in Brazil, despite the existence of slavery in this area of the African Diaspora. Using a historical perspective, this article compares…
Examining Historical and Contemporary Policing Disparities in the Black Community
An alarming number of unarmed Black men and women have been killed by police in the United States. Though research suggests that police violence is not a new phenomenon in Black communities in the United States, several shocking high-profile incidents of unarmed Black people killed by police in recent years have catapulted this problem more sharply into our nation's consciousness. Despite recent efforts to engage in critical discourse about polic…
Writing Skills Development for Graduate Studies and Career Readiness in Science and Aging Fields
Increasing the number of racially and ethnically underrepresented students who pursue scientific graduate studies in programs focusing on science and aging offers an opportunity to increase the number of aging specialists while simultaneously promoting diversity in the research labor market and supporting new ideas. This case study aims to better understand how students participating in an academic preparatory program experience a writing class c…
Cultural responses to loss and grief among Black Americans
Dying, death, and grief are universal human experiences that are impacted by cultural values and beliefs. We provide service providers a context from which to consider the importance of spirituality and religiosity in the grief process and the variances in grief practices that exist within the Black community. This knowledge can serve as a catalyst for developing culturally appropriate interventions for Black people aimed at helping them to more …
Six feet apart or six feet under
To date, 110,000+ people in the United States have died from the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, the authors will discuss COVID-19 relative to Black people and their overrepresentation among those who are infected and died from the disease. Their dying, death, and grief experiences are explored through a cultural and spiritual lens. The physical distancing, social isolation, misinformation, and restrictive burials and cremations now elicited by…
First Prize
Am I Next
There is little research that explores the experiences of Black people exposed to police killings of other unarmed Blacks, despite the fact these incidents repeatedly and disproportionately affect this population. While some quantitative studies have examined the impacts of police violence exposure on mental health in recent years, there remains a dearth of in-depth qualitative research exploring the processes through which chronic exposures to p…
Six feet apart or six feet under
To date, 110,000+ people in the United States have died from the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, the authors will discuss COVID-19 relative to Black people and their overrepresentation among those who are infected and died from the disease. Their dying, death, and grief experiences are explored through a cultural and spiritual lens. The physical distancing, social isolation, misinformation, and restrictive burials and cremations now elicited by…
Examining Historical and Contemporary Policing Disparities in the Black Community
An alarming number of unarmed Black men and women have been killed by police in the United States. Though research suggests that police violence is not a new phenomenon in Black communities in the United States, several shocking high-profile incidents of unarmed Black people killed by police in recent years have catapulted this problem more sharply into our nation's consciousness. Despite recent efforts to engage in critical discourse about polic…
Cultural responses to loss and grief among Black Americans
Dying, death, and grief are universal human experiences that are impacted by cultural values and beliefs. We provide service providers a context from which to consider the importance of spirituality and religiosity in the grief process and the variances in grief practices that exist within the Black community. This knowledge can serve as a catalyst for developing culturally appropriate interventions for Black people aimed at helping them to more …
Black and Blue
Because repeated incidents of police violence against unarmed Black people are increasingly visible, as a result of technological advances, there is growing need to understand their potentially traumatic mental health effects for other Black people. This narrative review provides an overview of critical race theory, the stress, appraisal, and coping theory, trauma theory, racial trauma theory, and emotional contagion theory to develop an integrat…
Instant Trauma
From protection to self-reliance
This study examined the mediating role of perceived police legitimacy in the relationship between exposure to videos of police use-of-force and personal safety behaviors among Black emerging adult women. Using surveys from 152 participants, findings showed that greater exposure to police use-of-force videos was associated with decreased reliance on police for personal safety, and this relationship was mediated by perceptions of police legitimacy.…
My life matters here’
The Talk I Received From My Parents, I Gave to My Little Brother
While much literature examines racial socialization in Black families, specifically "the Talk," few studies focus on this process during emerging adulthood. Guided by relational communication and racism-related stress theories, this qualitative study examined Black emerging adults' experiences of "the Talk," a specific form of racial socialization that prepares Black individuals for encounters with racism and policing, and its impact on their per…
Ain't I a woman
Alarming statistics show that Black women in the United States (US) are disproportionately more likely to be killed by the police, and more likely to die during childbirth than their counterparts. However, despite growing attention to incidents of police killings and pregnancy-related deaths of Black women, there has been minimal effort to historically situate these inequities in the contexts of state-sanctioned violence. Coverage of these deadly…
First Prize
Cultural responses to loss and grief among Black Americans
Dying, death, and grief are universal human experiences that are impacted by cultural values and beliefs. We provide service providers a context from which to consider the importance of spirituality and religiosity in the grief process and the variances in grief practices that exist within the Black community. This knowledge can serve as a catalyst for developing culturally appropriate interventions for Black people aimed at helping them to more …
Six feet apart or six feet under
To date, 110,000+ people in the United States have died from the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, the authors will discuss COVID-19 relative to Black people and their overrepresentation among those who are infected and died from the disease. Their dying, death, and grief experiences are explored through a cultural and spiritual lens. The physical distancing, social isolation, misinformation, and restrictive burials and cremations now elicited by…
Writing Skills Development for Graduate Studies and Career Readiness in Science and Aging Fields
Increasing the number of racially and ethnically underrepresented students who pursue scientific graduate studies in programs focusing on science and aging offers an opportunity to increase the number of aging specialists while simultaneously promoting diversity in the research labor market and supporting new ideas. This case study aims to better understand how students participating in an academic preparatory program experience a writing class c…
Under the Brutal Watch
Though less discussed in the literature, slave patrols played a significant role in continuing and sustaining the system of slavery. While few scholars have dedicated attention to exploring the history of slave patrols in the United States (US), there remains a dearth of research analyzing the slave patrol system in Brazil, despite the existence of slavery in this area of the African Diaspora. Using a historical perspective, this article compares…
Examining Historical and Contemporary Policing Disparities in the Black Community
An alarming number of unarmed Black men and women have been killed by police in the United States. Though research suggests that police violence is not a new phenomenon in Black communities in the United States, several shocking high-profile incidents of unarmed Black people killed by police in recent years have catapulted this problem more sharply into our nation's consciousness. Despite recent efforts to engage in critical discourse about polic…
“Tone It Down”
While there is growing research on the structural and institutional barriers experienced by Black women faculty at predominantly White institutions (PWIs), little is known about the systemic marginalization faced by Black women doctoral students at these institutions, particularly those in doctoral social work programs. Given the increasing number of Black women doctoral students in social work programs at PWIs, there is a need to understand how …
Lessons Learned in Implementing an Aging Research Training Program for Underrepresented Minority Students
This brief report provides an overview of lessons learned through evaluation of the first five years of the NIA-funded South Carolina-Advancing Diversity in Aging Research (SC-ADAR) undergraduate program, whose goal is to increase the number of qualified underrepresented minority (URM) students who pursue scientific graduate studies in programs focusing on medicine, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and aging. Partnering with five…
Why Don’t We Learn About the Black Social Work Pioneers?” The Erasure of Black Social Workers’ Histories and Contributions—Implications for Social Work Education
While there is mounting research on the well-known white founders of social work, documentation of Black social work pioneers and their contributions is scarce – in both social work education and the broader telling of the profession's history. Given the systemic exclusion of Black social workers in the dominant narrative of social work history, there is a critical need to understand how social work education perpetuates and centers whiteness in …
“Take a Mental Break”
Given the repeated police killings of unarmed Black people and their increasing visibility because of recent technological advances, Black people are especially vulnerable to adverse mental health effects. However, little is known about how they attempt to cope with these incidents or how their efforts may affect their mental health. Informed by trauma theory and stress, appraisal, and coping theory, this study used semi-structured in-depth inter…
For Crying Out Loud
Ain't I a woman
Alarming statistics show that Black women in the United States (US) are disproportionately more likely to be killed by the police, and more likely to die during childbirth than their counterparts. However, despite growing attention to incidents of police killings and pregnancy-related deaths of Black women, there has been minimal effort to historically situate these inequities in the contexts of state-sanctioned violence. Coverage of these deadly…
Black and Blue
Because repeated incidents of police violence against unarmed Black people are increasingly visible, as a result of technological advances, there is growing need to understand their potentially traumatic mental health effects for other Black people. This narrative review provides an overview of critical race theory, the stress, appraisal, and coping theory, trauma theory, racial trauma theory, and emotional contagion theory to develop an integrat…
Am I Next
There is little research that explores the experiences of Black people exposed to police killings of other unarmed Blacks, despite the fact these incidents repeatedly and disproportionately affect this population. While some quantitative studies have examined the impacts of police violence exposure on mental health in recent years, there remains a dearth of in-depth qualitative research exploring the processes through which chronic exposures to p…
Instant Trauma
From protection to self-reliance
This study examined the mediating role of perceived police legitimacy in the relationship between exposure to videos of police use-of-force and personal safety behaviors among Black emerging adult women. Using surveys from 152 participants, findings showed that greater exposure to police use-of-force videos was associated with decreased reliance on police for personal safety, and this relationship was mediated by perceptions of police legitimacy.…
In search of a soft life
My life matters here’
Understanding the Relationship Between Direct and Vicarious Police Contact and “The Talk”
Direct and vicarious police contact can be traumatic events, justifying the need for parents to prepare children for encounters with the police through a process known as “The Talk.” Police persistently target Black communities, and most research on “The Talk” is limited to Black families, so less is known about engagement in “The Talk” across different groups. Relying on a pooled sample of 8,842 racially diverse 8th to 10th-grade students, we ex…
Tired of being tired
The highly publicized murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 sparked public outrage and widespread discussion around anti-Black violence. While some studies have examined the effects of anti-Black violence exposure on mental health outcomes, there is a paucity of research that explores how these racially charged events contribute to cumulative stress and "weathering" for Black people, particularly. Informed by racial b…
The Talk I Received From My Parents, I Gave to My Little Brother
While much literature examines racial socialization in Black families, specifically "the Talk," few studies focus on this process during emerging adulthood. Guided by relational communication and racism-related stress theories, this qualitative study examined Black emerging adults' experiences of "the Talk," a specific form of racial socialization that prepares Black individuals for encounters with racism and policing, and its impact on their per…
Addressing Police Brutality of Black Men
Through the broad use of technology such as phones and social media, people are more aware of various instances of police brutality. Specifically, police violence toward Black men continues to garner increased public scrutiny. The paper discusses the historical context of police violence toward Black men and the associated psychological trauma impact. The authors advocate for police reform using the Sanctuary Model of trauma-informed care approac…
From Cradle to Rocking Chair
Sociology (14 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Criminology (8 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (6 works) · Policing Practices and Perceptions (6 works) · Psychiatry (6 works)