3 - (SYM 68) Savoring as a Resilience Factor Among Black Sexual Minority Women in the United States

Background: A novel construct consistent with ABCT’s 2023 theme of “Cultivating joy with CBT” is savoring, defined as behaviors performed to enhance and extend the pleasure of positive events. Intentional, deep enjoyment of pleasurable events can be a resilience strategy, particularly among individuals who hold multiple marginalized identities, such as Black sexual minority women (SWM). This study explores how savoring manifests across three temporal domains for Black SMW in the US and examines how savoring is related to overgeneral memory (OGM), an individual-level mental health risk factor.

Methods: Black SMW were recruited via social media and community partnerships to complete tasks and measures related to savoring, experiences of childhood trauma, OGM, and PTSD and depression symptoms. Data collection is ongoing with an anticipated N of 150 participants accrued by April 30, 2023, and full data will be presented at the symposium. Using the Savoring Beliefs Inventory, preliminary data were analyzed to assess savoring across three temporal domains: savoring the past (reminiscing), savoring the present, and savoring the future (anticipation). Statements were rated from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree. OGM was assessed via the Autobiographical Memory Task, which prompts participants to report specific memories in response to cue words. OGM is the proportion of memories that exceed 24 hours or represent a category of events relative to the total number of memories provided.  

Results: Preliminary analyses from participants thus far (N=19) showed similar scores across the reminiscing (M = 5.15, SD= .85), present moment (M = 4.27, SD = 1.26), and anticipation (M = 4.45, SD =1.24) domains. The total savoring mean score (M=4.62, SD = .97) was in the average range. On average, 54% of reported memories were categorized as overgeneral. Correlation analyses showed no significant association between savoring and OGM (r(19) = 0.01, p = .969).

Conclusions: Preliminary results show that participants endorsed comparable levels of savoring the past, present and future, and that savoring was not correlated with OGM. Presented results using the full sample will include similar analyses, as well as explore how savoring and overgeneral memory interact to impact the relationship between experiences of childhood trauma and current depression and PTSD symptoms for Black SMW. Implications of these findings specific to the sociopolitical context of Black SMW in the United States will be discussed, including possible avenues for intervention.