Understanding and Transforming the Benefits of Affinity Racial Healing Groups

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 1:45 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Cultural Identity, Race, and Resilience in Counseling

Abstract

Racial stress and trauma (RST) has negative consequences on the adjustment of adolescents of color. School is a significant developmental context, where adolescents experience and process RST. Yet, there are few interventions that equip youth and adults to resist racism and promote racial healing in schools.
This study examines feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness (e.g., self-efficacy to respond to racism, cultural pride) from a school-based intervention pilot study designed to address RST among adolescents of color and explore differences among affinity groups. TRANSFORM is a 11 session group-based intervention. Forty-one youth (Mage = 16, 42% boys) participated in the intervention and pre/post surveys, including two Black and two Latine groups. Implications for racial healing in school will be discussed.

Authors

• Stephanie Chang, Stanford University

• Farzana Adjah, Stanford University

• Won-Fong Lau Johnson, UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress

• Audra Langley, University of California - Los Angeles