Hands Up, Now What?: Black Families’ Reactions to Racial Socialization Interventions

Given the heightened national attention to negative race-related issues and the subsequent community solution-oriented outcry (e.g., Black Lives Matter movement), it is crucial to address healing from racial discrimination for Black Americans. Clinical and community psychologists have responded by developing and implementing programs that focus on racial socialization and psychological wellness, particularly given disproportionate issues with utilization, access, and the provision of quality services within urban and predominantly Black communities. The aim of this article is to describe 2 applied programs (Engaging, Managing, and Bonding through Race and Family Learning Villages), which seek to address and heal racial stress through crucial proximal systems—families and schools—and to highlight participant reactions. These programs offer solutions through strengths-based and participatory approaches which draw from Black Americans’ own protective mechanisms related to improved mental health. We conclude with a discussion on practice, assessments, and models specific to racial stress for researchers, practitioners, and consumers of mental health services

A Spectrum of Health: Investigating the Role of Parental Racial Socialization Practices in Black Adolescent Health Outcomes

Among Black adolescents, exposure to racial discrimination (RD) is associated with a myriad of negative social, emotional, and physical health outcomes. Racial socialization (RS), defined as the verbal and nonverbal communication between youth and their caregivers on race and racial experiences, equips young people with the tools to adaptively appraise and cope with RD. Although RS is identified as a central component to the positive development of Black youth, scant research has assessed whether RS can mitigate the negative impact of RD on health for Black adolescents across social, emotional, and physical health indicators. Additionally, much of the literature relies on parent report&nbsp;of content and frequency of RS messaging, and less is known about the role of how effective or presently competent parents feel during the RS process. To address these gaps in the literature, this study collected cross-sectional survey data from 148 Black caregiver-adolescent dyads, with adolescents ranging in age from 12 &ndash; 17 (Mage = 14.4, SD = 1.57). Moderation and mediation analyses were used to explore the associations between experiences with RD, RS content and frequency, RS competency, and a self-reported health indicator, pediatric health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Findings revealed a significant negative relationship between adolescents&rsquo; exposure to RD and their HRQOL. Results also indicated RS content and frequency as a moderator in this relationship, when controlling for age and parent-child relationship. Among this sample, components of RS competency did not mediate a relationship between youth&rsquo;s report of RD and their HRQOL. Implications for public policy, research, and culturally-responsive clinical practice are discussed.</p

EMBRace: Developing a Racial Socialization Intervention to Reduce Racial Stress and Enhance Racial Coping among Black Parents and Adolescents

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148381/1/famp12412_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148381/2/famp12412.pd

What’s Race Got to Do With It? Racial Socialization’s Contribution to Black Adolescent Coping

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152709/1/jora12440_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152709/2/jora12440.pd

Psychotherapy with Caribbean Women: Examples from USVI, Haiti, and Guyana

The Caribbean region represents a mosaic of cultures and languages, bound by a common experience of colonization, and marked by distinct histories of freedom and independence. Throughout the various countries that comprise the region, the role and importance of women is clearly recognized, highlighted, and demonstrated. Gender issues and feminist ideals have been and continue to be an area of discourse in all disciplines, including psychology. In this article, we provide an overview of the Caribbean region in order to contextualize the information presented. Next, we highlight three different countries in the region, US Virgin Islands, Haiti, and Guyana, to showcase the characteristics and experiences (i.e., gender role and gender socialization) of women in these respective countries, as well representations of feminist ideals. Lastly, we highlight the integration of Caribbean cultural backgrounds, social/political contexts, and feminist ideals in psychotherapeutic interventions with women in the region with specific recommendations for psychotherapy treatment process and outcomes

Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Black American Youth and Families: A Case Study from the EMBRace Intervention

Black American youth are vulnerable to the consequences of repeated exposure to racial discrimination, particularly through hampered coping abilities and greater internalizing and externalizing problems. One way in which Black American parents have protected their children from these deleterious consequences is through racial socialization, or communication regarding aspects of racialized experiences and contexts. Less is known, however, about the potential therapeutic benefits of racial socialization via clinical intervention. The five-week Engaging, Managing, and Bonding through Race (EMBRace) racial socialization intervention was developed to enhance coping strategies for parents and adolescents and reduce adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems. The purpose of this study is to describe a case study of one family through a mixed methods approach. Variables of interest included racial discrimination, racial socialization, coping, and psychological well-being. Quantitative and qualitative assessments were performed two weeks prior to and one week after the implementation of EMBRace, with qualitative data collected throughout the intervention. Results indicate a developing sense of coping for the adolescent and parent and reduced adolescent psychosocial problems despite increased racialized stress. Results will be used to further investigate the hypotheses proposed in the pilot with a powered sample, and future studies will explore how sociodemographic and biopsychosocial variables relate to policy recommendations, program implementation, and psychosocial outcomes