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

Abstract

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.

Engagement Coping Responses to Adolescents’ Negative Racialized Experiences

“…The findings are poised to inform racism‐response training and interventions for Black adolescents and families. Training may consider how to increase parents’ feelings of efficacy in responding to their children's racialized experiences by contextualizing their child's experience and providing supportive guidance on how to cope and respond (Anderson, Jones, et al., 2020; Anderson, Metzger, et al., 2020; Metzger, Anderson, Are, & Ritchwood, 2021). Furthermore, parents will understand how developing their critical consciousness can foster their children's potential activism, that activism can incrementally dismantle oppressive structures, and these responses can be viewed as active coping responses against social injustice (Hope & Spencer, 2017).…”

“…There is extensive literature on the importance of parental ethnic‐racial socialization in fostering ethnic‐racial identity and managing race‐related stress (Anderson & Stevenson, 2019; Cooper et al., 2019; Neblett et al., 2008; Neblett, Smalls, Ford, Nguyen, & Sellers, 2009; Umaña‐Taylor & Hill, 2020). However, the nature of ethnic‐racial socialization as a factor in developing adolescent coping skills to interrupt anti‐Black racism is growing but small (Anderson, Jones, & Stevenson, 2020; Anderson, Metzger, et al., 2020; Anderson & Stevenson, 2019). Theoretical work suggests that parents’ messages about race may provide youth with skills to challenge oppression (Anyiwo, Bañales, Rowley, Watkins, & Richards‐Schuster, 2018).…”

“…These engaged racial coping suggestions have implications for youth's strategies to manage negative racialized experiences, which directly inform youths’ psychosocial, physiological, academic, and identity outcomes (Anderson & Stevenson, 2019). Studies report that engagement coping in response to racialized experiences has benefits in dismantling systems of oppression and improving individual wellness (Anderson et al., 2018; Anderson, Jones, et al., 2020; Anderson, Metzger, et al., 2020).…”

M(ai)cro: Centering the Macrosystem in Human Development

“…We do not purport that the mainstream story about racial socialization ignores the macrosystem; scholars certainly nest the process of racial socialization and its goals in response to racial oppression and discrimination, such as "The Talk" in response to police brutality (Anderson et al, 2020;Hughes et al, 2016;Umana-Taylor & Hill, 2020). One limitation is when the macrosystem is operationalized as static; for example, measuring differences based on social class or racial background.…”

Journal of Youth Development’s Stance on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access

“…We encourage you to read and share our articles. For example, in this issue alone I would highlight Recent publications address indigenous identity (Farella et al, 2021), LGBTQ+ inclusion (Rand et al, 2021), critical consciousness (Gonzalez et al, 2020), Black family engagement (Case, 2020), the Thrive model though an equity lens (Fields, 2020), Latinx adolescents' peer ethnic discrimination (Ma et al, 2020) countering fascism (Arbeit et al, 2020), Black families' reactions to socialization interventions (Anderson et al, 2020) and leading with youth of color (Clemons, 2020).…”