Faculty & Staff

Psychology professor researches suicide among African Americans

Amidst her work as an associate professor at UH’s Department of Psychology, psychologist Rheeda Walker is knee-deep in research about suicide and African American culture.

“I have always been concerned that psychological research does not meet the needs of diverse groups,” Walker said.

“To date, I have examined universal risks to predict suicide ideation in multi-ethnic samples to determine if seemingly well-known risks hold up consistently as predictors of suicide thoughts across groups.”

Walker’s research is focused in primarily two areas: the science behind suicide and the mental health of African Americans.

“So far, I have found that in primarily university students, symptoms of depression are associated with thoughts of suicide. However, this tends not to be true for Black Americans who have a strong sense of ethnic identity or cultural worldview,” Walker said. “In sum, culture matters may be able to buffer some psychological stressors.”

Since 2002, Walker has produced various works and research papers that relate to her focuses of Black and African mental health, the psychology behind suicide, race-related stress and discrimination, religiousness, spirituality and culturally-informed coping. In 2011, she released a collaborative work entitled “Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior.”

Walker said she was drawn to teaching by the fervor students bring and to psychology because of its usefulness.

“Curious students have always motivated me. I try to present a different way of thinking about things whenever possible. Most students value that,” Walker said.

“I’ve always been curious about how psychological theories are used to predict individual behavior.”

Walker said she is staying busy with UH-related and local projects.

“At present, I am setting up new research projects at UH and in the local community,” Walker said, “I have several papers (that are) in progress, or are being considered for publication.”

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