'John Henryism' Health Outcomes in African Americans

'John Henryism' Key to Understanding Coping, Health Outcomes in African Americans

DURHAM, N.C. – John Henry, the figure from American folklore who worked himself to death to beat a steam engine, is a key to understanding the medical reality of African Americans in the 21st century, according to researchers from Duke University Medical Center and their colleagues. African Americans continue to have poorer health than other groups, even though their economic situation has improved significantly, said the researchers.

'John Henryism,' is a coping style that has a clear genetic basis in African Americans and reflects clear personality traits, they reported. The effects of John Henryism (JH) are apparent in clinical and non-clinical settings, can influence emotional reactions and may impact how African Americans function in their everyday lives, the researchers said.

The findings from four studies that examine JH and health outcomes among African Americans were presented on Friday, March 3, 2006, as part of a symposium organized by Duke researchers at the American Psychosomatic Society's annual meeting in Denver. The studies were funded by the National Institute on Aging.

Psychologists have formally recognized John Henryism as a style of strong coping behaviors used by many African Americans to deal with psychosocial and environmental stressors such as career issues, health problems and even racism. The classic traits of JH are seen among those African Americans who are extremely preoccupied with success, particularly in new environments with which they have little experience. Most commonly, people with JH are extremely goal-oriented but often lack the resources they need for success, such as financial or emotional support, the researchers said.

People with high levels of JH and inadequate resources have a much higher prevalence of health disorders, the researchers added, because they drive themselves toward reaching specific goals at the expense of their health, often without realizing they are doing so.

For example, when coping with a medical crisis like sickle cell anemia, African Americans may display a strong drive toward a successful health outcome but lack the support they need in their job in order to take time off from work, leading them to work during a severe pain episode even though they know their work will suffer or their pain will last longer, said the researchers.

Without adequate resources such as income, social support or psychological and medical care, a person with sickle cell disease would risk increased levels of dysfunction and pain. They also have increased tendencies toward worrying; an increased sensitivity to the comments and reactions of others; increased anxiety and depression; and difficulty trusting other people.

"John Henryism provides one of the more significant and promising models of explaining coping behavior and health outcomes in African Americans for the twenty-first century," said Christopher L. Edwards, Ph.D., a psychiatrist at Duke and lead researcher for one of the studies presented at APS. He is also the medical director of the biofeedback laboratory and director of the Chronic Pain Management Program at Duke.

He further indicated that, "We believe that by better understanding how John Henryism can give rise to health-endangering behaviors by African Americans, we can find new approaches to reducing the health disparities that have led to poorer health among African Americans."

The researchers quantify John Henryism using a questionnaire that reveals a 'single-minded' drive to succeed, even beyond a person's overall self-interest, which is the hallmark of JH, Edwards said.

"People who are so intensely success-oriented and goal-directed, even beyond their resources such as income, education or family support, might seem to succeed at first," said Edwards. "But, long term they are likely to fail because their lack of resources will catch up to them. Add to that the African American situation, which, for many, includes an expectation that failure is inevitable, you find yourself in a most destructive situation.

"They end up compromising their health, with higher rates of cardiovascular disease and death as compared to any other population in the world. We also see evidence of this self-destructive behavior in African Americans with breast cancer, osteoarthritis, and of course, sickle cell disease."
One study, conducted at Pennsylvania State University and Johns Hopkins University, found that as much as 30 percent of active coping behavior in African Americans may be genetically-based, said the researchers. In their study, they examined 180 same-sex twins to glean a better framework for understanding the mechanics of coping behavior. They did this by comparing environmental factors, such as learning and socialization, to genetics factors. The 70 percent of coping that is not accountable to genetics gives hope that modifying the environment and learning how to better apply coping skills may yield solutions to the challenge of reducing the health burden of disease as a function of race, said the researchers.

A Duke-based study found that personality can be linked to measures of JH. In a sample of 233 participants, half of whom were African American and half white, researchers found traits such as 'extroversion' and 'conscientiousness' to be associated with the coping style characterized by JH, as were traits such as dutifulness, achievement-striving, self-discipline and assertiveness.

In a study conducted by researchers at Cleveland State University, Harvard and Duke, researchers found that JH influences how people react emotionally within their environment. The team tested the emotional reactions of 58 healthy black males between the ages of 23 and 47 to various activities. These included public speaking about a racially charged issue, a reading assignment and an anger recall task. They found that the men with lower educational levels who displayed more traits of JH were happier than those who scored high for JH who had higher educational levels.

To test their understanding of John Henryism in a clinical setting, researchers at Duke, North Carolina Central University and Harvard identified the influence of JH on patterns of pain and emotionally-related illness stemming from pain in 50 adult patients with sickle cell disease, an African American population that has not been well-studied. They administered the standard JH questionnaire to those patients, and asked them to report their pain level due to the disease.

That team found that patients with sickle cell disease who exhibited higher levels of JH reported higher incidence of pain and pain-related problems than those with lower levels of JH, they said.

According to Edwards, use of the JH model in research studies has added significantly to the overall understanding of coping in African Americans and will provide even better understanding of the health challenges they face.

"We hope that better understanding coping in African Americans using the John Henryism model will help us develop a better concept of how JH contributes to health problems and how we can reduce their stress and thus enhance their health," Edwards said.

keywords : African Americans and John Henryism or mental health date : 3/3/2006, media contact : Tracey Koepke , (919) 684-4148 or (919) 660-1301 koepk002@mc.duke.edu

Technorati Tags: John Henryism or biological and biology or African Americans and genetic or personality traits or psychosocial and prefrontal cortex or Health and health disorders or sickle cell anemia and anxiety or cardiovascular disease

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President Briefed by Joint I E D Task Force

President George W. Bush speaks to the press after participating in a briefing by the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Task Force in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Saturday March 11, 2006. White House photo by Paul Morse.

President Briefed by Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Task Force, The Roosevelt Room In Focus: Defense 8:46 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I want to thank General Meigs for being here to brief me about tactics on the ground in Iraq. One of the things that the Secretary and General Pace are constantly doing is briefing the Commander-in-Chief as to the nature of the enemy, what the enemy is trying to do to shake our will, and how we're adjusting, how we're constantly adapting our tactics on the ground to achieve a victory.

We face an enemy that will use explosive devices in order to shake our will; in order to foment violence in Iraq; in order to try to convince the American people that we can't win in Iraq. That's what they're trying to do. And the General has spent a lot of time thinking about the enemy's tactics and techniques, and how our military can adjust to them.

So the briefing today was a series of briefing I get from our commanders on the ground, as well as our experts hired by the Pentagon to let me know what we're doing, so I can let the American people know that we recognize the nature of this enemy, we're addressing our tactics to defeat this enemy, for the sake of peace, for the sake of the security of the United States of America and for the sake of peace in the world.

And so, General, thank you for being here. I appreciate your time. I'll answer a couple of questions. Deb.

Q Mr. President, can you tell us your reaction to the arrest of your former Domestic Policy Advisor, Claude Allen?

THE PRESIDENT: If the allegations are true, Claude Allen did not tell my Chief of Staff and legal counsel the truth, and that's deeply disappointing. If the allegations are true, something went wrong in Claude Allen's life, and that is really sad. When I heard the story last night I was shocked. And my first reaction was one of disappointment, deep disappointment that -- if it's true -- that we were not fully informed. But it was also one -- shortly thereafter, I felt really sad for the Allen family. (Editor's Note: more below end of this article)

Caren.

Q Sir, are you concerned about the rift that the Dubai Ports has opened with the Republican Party?

THE PRESIDENT: The Republican Party is united in our efforts to win the war on terror. The Republican Party is united in our efforts to keep this economy strong by keeping taxes low. The Republican Party is united in making us less dependent on foreign sources of oil.

I've read all the stories about this rift, or that rift. That's typical Washington, it seems like to me. I am looking forward to continuing to work with the leadership in the United States Congress to pass an agenda that will keep America the economic leader of the world and will keep this country secure. And next fall I'm looking forward to campaigning with our candidates. I'm convinced ours is the party that has got an agenda for the future, and ours is the party that has preformed.

Stretch.

Q Mr. President, are you concerned, with reference to the IEDs, are you concerned that the sophisticated weaponry our troops are facing now might be coming from foreign, neighboring countries? And if so, what are our courses going about --

THE PRESIDENT: We're constantly gathering intelligence. We're monitoring influence. We are adjusting our tactics. We are -- obviously, if there's any kind of influence from a foreign country that is disruptive, any kind of influence -- if the Iranians are trying to influence the outcome of the political process, or the outcome of the security situation there, we're letting them know our displeasure.

Our call is for those in the neighborhood to allow Iran -- Iraq to develop a democracy. And that includes our call to Iran, as well as to Syria. We have made our concerns known, and we will continue to make our concerns known. It's in the interests of the neighborhood that Iraq develop to be a peaceful democracy. It's important for countries to have stable, peaceful, prosperous countries on their border. Prosperity in one nation will help prosperity in other nations. It's important for our friends in the rest of the Middle East to help this new democracy.

And so, yes, we're interesting in negative influence; we're also interested in positive influence. And we call on people to be a positive influence, to help this new democracy emerge. And I'm optimistic that the Iraqi people will overcome the challenges they face.

And my optimism is based upon reality on the ground. One, there were some people trying to, obviously, foment sectarian violence. Some have called it a civil war. But it didn't work. Secondly, I'm optimistic because the Iraqi security forces preformed, in most cases, really well to provide security. All but two of the provinces of Iraq, after the blowing up of the mosque, were settled. I'm positive and optimistic about the development that the Iraqi forces are achieving.

I know we've got to do more work in the police forces. We have said that very clearly. General Casey has called the year 2006 the year of police training, and we'll continue to work to train the police. I'm optimistic that the leadership recognizes that sectarian violence will undermine the capacity for them to self govern. I believe we'll have a unity government in place that will help move the process forward. I fully recognize that the nature of the enemy is such that they want to convince the world that we cannot succeed in Iraq. I know we're going to succeed if we don't lose our will.

Thank you all.

END 8:53 A.M. EST, For Immediate Release, Office of the Press Secretary, March 11, 2006

Claude A. Allen- former White House adviser and Bush administration nominee to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has been arrested and charged with theft for receiving phony refunds at department stores.

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