A brief social belonging intervention improves academic outcomes for minoritized high school students.

Abstract

Disparities between racially minoritized (Black/Hispanic/Native American) and nonminoritized (White/Asian) students in educational outcomes—both in terms of opportunity and achievement—continue to characterize the American educational system. Social belonging interventions, which shift student construal of social adversity experienced in school, have been shown to be effective with college students (Walton & Cohen, 2011) but have not been tested with high school students. We developed and tested such an intervention in a randomized controlled trial with students transitioning from middle school into high school. Participants (N = 162; 18% minoritized, 79% nonminoritized, 57% women) were randomly assigned to receive intervention or control materials during an optional summer orientation program. By the end of their first year, students in the treatment condition had 46% fewer unexcused absences (95% CI [−66%, −15%]), 36% fewer tardiness records (95% CI [−63%, 12%]), and gained more friends (d = 0.59) than did participants in the control condition. The intervention was particularly effective for racially minoritized participants: Those in the treatment condition failed fewer classes (d = −0.86), earned higher grades (d = 0.90), and received 82% fewer disciplinary citations (95% CI [−97%, 26%]) by the end of the academic year than did their minoritized peers in the control condition. These gains represent reductions in racial gaps ranging from 86% to 100%. Our findings indicate that social belonging interventions might partially redress racial equity gaps in secondary education. Discussion centers on the potential psychological and behavioral mechanisms underlying the intervention.

Can a visual values-affirmation intervention improve test scores of students in areas affected by crisis?

“…previous VA studies geographically in the United States and demographically among nonrefugee racial minorities and women. 11,12,14,15,72 The lack of gender-based differences in math scores in response to the VA intervention in our study-in contrast to findings in other studies-suggests that such gender-based effects may be influenced by whether gender-related stereotyping is prevalent in the academic contexts in which the intervention is used. 73 The moderation-analysis finding that the male students benefited from the intervention more than the female students did with respect to the English exam may reflect the tendency of female learners in Lebanon to outperform male learners in academic subjects.…”

Democratizing Creativity by Enhancing Imagery and Agency: A Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Such a tendency is constantly demonstrated in various interventions that support young people in solving their day-to-day personal problems and reduce educational inequalities. For instance, students from negatively stereotyped groups or those underrepresented in a particular context benefited more from the social-belonging intervention (Williams et al, 2020). Furthermore, the effects of interventions are usually the strongest among students from low socioeconomic status households (Destin, 2017).…”

Tackling Educational Inequalities with Social Psychology: Identities, Contexts, and Interventions

“…White students, in contrast, showed only small gains in these outcomes, none of which reached statistical significance. Social belonging interventions have also been shown to benefit students from ethnic minorities who were about to enter high school (Williams, Hirschi, Sublett, Hulleman, & Wilson, 2020).…”