# Building Biobehavioral Goal Directed Resilience among African American Women (Project GRIT)

> **NIH NIH U54** · MOREHOUSE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2021 · $264,646

## Abstract

ABSTRACT 
 Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric condition that has a prevalence of 10-12% in women and is 
associated with a high rate of lifetime comorbid depression, anxiety, substance use, and cardiovascular disease. The rates 
of PTSD and comorbidity are substantially higher in urban settings, and African American women are underrepresented in 
treatment. 
 This proposal adopts a transdisciplinary, translational approach to explore the benefits of a culturally centered, 
trauma-informed intervention that would enable key insights into improving outcomes among African American women 
and serve as a model for other health disparity populations. The specific objective of this proposal is to train goal-directed 
resilience skills and to test program efficacy in increasing engagement, social relatedness, and efficiency of stress 
responses among 148 African American women in receiving services in urban, primary care settings with clinically 
significant PTSD symptoms. The scientific premise is that the development of these skills will change mental health and 
psychophysiological outcomes. 
Participants will be randomized to intervention and control conditions and will be implemented in 7 Waves. This research 
effort is guided by 2 specific aims and an exploratory aim: Aim 1. Quantify the effects of a resilience building 
intervention on psychological symptoms, cardiovascular risk and resilience outcomes in a group of African American 
women with clinically significant posttraumatic stress symptoms. Aim 2. Determine whether fear, CV physiology, CV 
risk, and sleep patterns mediate response to a resilience building intervention in a group of African American women with 
clinically significant posttraumatic stress symptoms. Aim 3. Identify resource and risk factors in a transdiagnostic, multi- 
level model of resilience that will examine community and social factors that support individual risk and resilience factors

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10163704
- **Project number:** 5U54MD007602-34
- **Recipient organization:** MOREHOUSE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** GLENDA L WRENN
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $264,646
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1997-07-07 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10163704

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10163704, Building Biobehavioral Goal Directed Resilience among African American Women (Project GRIT) (5U54MD007602-34). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10163704. Licensed CC0.

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