Examining Feasibility, Acceptability, and Participant Experiences of an Anti-Racist Parenting Intervention for White Parents

• In Event: The role of racial socialization and education in the development of anti-racism among diverse youth

Abstract

This flash talk will review findings from a mixed methods pilot of a novel intervention aimed at promoting anti-racist attitudes and practices among White parents of 4-to-6-year-old children. The goal of the intervention was to disrupt the intergenerational socialization of Whiteness—the condition in which White people are treated as racially and culturally neutral, ahistorical, and superior to People of Color (Coleman et al., 2020)—by supporting White parents to socialize children who are racially conscious and actively anti-racist. Parents are key socialization agents who impact child attitudes and behavior, including race-related attitudes and behavior; thus, increasing White parents’ competence in anti-racist parenting is critical to their children’s racial socialization (Vittrup & Holden, 2011). This mixed methods analysis focuses on the feasibility, acceptability, and experience of the intervention from participants’ perspectives.

Methods
Intervention. Building on critical consciousness theory (Heberle et al., 2020), the intervention targets three key competencies for anti-racism: knowledge/awareness, efficacy, and action. Components of the intervention included one-on-one brief coaching sessions using motivational interviewing techniques (two sessions per participant) (Rollnick et al., 2008), biweekly group sessions (ten total) that provided opportunities for support and capacity building, direct instruction on racism, anti-racism, Whiteness, and related topics, and behavioral activation strategies (i.e., assigning participants to achievable daily and weekly anti-racist actions). All aspects of the intervention were delivered online via Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Participants. Participants were 27 White parents of 4-to-6-year old children. All participants who reported their gender identified as women. Participation began in January to February 2022 and ended in June to July 2022.
Data. All participants completed pre-intervention demographic questionnaires and pre- and post-intervention measures, including items about intervention acceptability, satisfaction, and meaningfulness. All sessions were recorded and are currently being coded for qualitative analysis. In addition, all parents completed a post-intervention semi-structured interview regarding their experience of the intervention and intervention outcomes; this interview will also be coded for qualitative analysis.

Findings
Qualitative and quantitative findings suggest that acceptability of the intervention was high. Satisfaction and meaningfulness were higher for the group components of the intervention than for individual components. Attendance at group sessions ranged from 1-10 sessions attended, with both the average and modal participant attending 6 sessions. This may indicate that feasibility is a concern, which is unsurprising given the high level of demandingness of the model and the fact that our target population is in a demanding, time-intensive phase of parenting. Emerging qualitative findings suggest that participants found the social elements of the intervention to be engaging and productive but had a desire for more concrete guidance and for modeling from “successful” anti-racist parents.

Discussion
Discussion of the findings will focus on implications for further intervention development and on the tension between challenging participants to sit with complexity and discomfort versus providing participants with clear and concrete guidance to follow.

Authors

• Amy Heberle, Clark University
  Presenting Author

• Noah Hoch, Clark University

• Amanda Cruz, Clark University