Scale in development
The Anti-Oppressive Burnout Scale
The AOBS assesses multidimensional burnout among women of the African diaspora. Traditional measures treat burnout mainly as job exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy. The AOBS examines how present demands, internalized intergenerational messages, cultural expectations, and systemic inequities shape burnout. It also recognizes that the work contributing to exhaustion extends beyond paid employment to include caregiving, emotional labor, and responsibilities within families and communities.
Early psychometric work includes item reduction, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, and a preliminary scoring structure.
Related talks
“The Burnout We Don’t Name: How Internalized Oppression Shapes Exhaustion in Black Women,” presented at the Maternal Mental Health Conference, 2026.
“The Hidden Weight of Strength: Exploring Burnout in Black Women’s Lives,” presented at Nia Cultural Center, Inc.
Internalized Oppression
How messages about strength, worth, and “holding it together” get absorbed and then show up as exhaustion.
Sociocultural Context
Family, faith, community, and the Strong Black Woman expectation — labor that standard burnout scales miss.
Systemic and Environmental Conditions
Workplaces, paid or unpaid, that demand care while withholding rest and safety, including race-gendered discrimination.
Protective Factors
Not only what depletes. The scale also looks at what buffers burnout.