Description:

"Promoting Ethnic-Racial Identity Exploration in School-Based Settings:  Opportunities, Challenges and Initial Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial"

by Emma Adam, Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Human Development and Social Policy, and IPR Fellow.

Abstract: Adam’s prior research has revealed that racial discrimination is a stressor for adolescents, particularly for individuals of color, and negatively affects the functioning of stress sensitive biological systems such as stress hormones and sleep patterns. Dysregulations in stress biology in turn contribute to worse health and academic outcomes. Past correlational findings have also found that developing a strong ethnic-racial identity (ERI) may help to ameliorate the negative effects of race-based stress on youth outcomes. Here, Adam describes the rationale for and design of a randomized controlled trial she and her collaborators have implemented in local high schools, in which youth randomized to a class-based ethnic-racial identity intervention are contrasted with youth randomized to an active control condition.  Initial results suggest that ERI development can be systematically promoted in high school settings, through a planned curriculum and group conversations guided by a trained adult facilitator.  Experimental effects of the ERI intervention on aspects of stress biology are also discussed.  Adam also discusses the many practical, political and legal barriers that exist to extending this type of program to a broader sample of youth.

This event is part of the Fay Lomax Cook Fall 2024 Colloquium Series, where our researchers from around the University share their latest policy-relevant research.

Please note all colloquia this quarter will be held in-person only.