African-American girls are some of the most vulnerable students in American schools. As just one example, they are disciplined at up to 11 timesopens in new window the rate of their white peers, according to a report by the African American Policy Forum.
A desire to turn such discouraging statistics around was the impetus behind the "Sisters of Nia" program, an Afrocentric social-emotional intervention for early adolescents. Developed by Faye Belgrave, PhD, director of the Center for Cultural Experiences in Preventionopens in new window at Virginia Commonwealth University, the program uses African principles that focus on unity, collective work, responsibility and more to foster a community for young women.
"Throughout the program, the girls develop close connections to their peers and mentors," says Belgrave. "This focus on interpersonal relationships has a big effect on their positive identity development."
A study of early adolescent African-American girls who completed the eight-week program found that they were more engaged in school and less relationally aggressive toward their peers after the intervention ( School Psychology Forum opens in new window, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2016).
The study is admittedly small, but it is among a growing number that are worth watching because they are finding that culturally relevant programs work.
"Generally, culturally adapted interventions are more effective than either no intervention or some kind of comparison unadapted treatment," says Gordon C. Nagayama Hall, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Oregon. He is the lead author of a 2016 meta-analysis that evaluated cultural interventions across 78 studies with 13,998 participants, about half of whom were children ( Behavior Therapy opens in new window, Vol. 47, No. 6, 2016).
Not-so-universal interventions
Some psychologists who are interested in adapting interventions for specific cultures and races have begun by studying empirically validated "universal" programs—those intended to work for all students regardless of culture. In particular, researchers have closely examined the "Strong Start," "Strong Kids" and "Strong Teens" programs developed by Kenneth W. Merrell, PhD, and his colleagues at the University of Oregon in 2007. The three social-emotional interventions teach kids behavioral strategies to reduce stress, offset negative thoughts, manage anger and resolve interpersonal conflicts.
But in their research, Scott L. Graves Jr., PhD, associate professor of school psychology at The Ohio State University, Candice Aston, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Towson University in Maryland, and colleagues found that, in fact, the "Strong Kids" program did not apply to everyone: It appeared to have no significant effects on social-emotional knowledge or resiliency when tested with 39 fourth- and fifth-grade African-American girls ( School Psychology Forum opens in new window, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2016).
Graves and Aston say this finding points to a need for more culturally tailored research. "[The participants'] response to this universal intervention was essentially, ‘This is not my life, this does not relate to me,'" Aston says.
Armed with that finding, Graves and Aston culturally adapted the "Strong Start" program for African-American children and tested its effectiveness with 61 African-American boys in kindergarten through second grade ( School Psychology Quarterly opens in new window, Vol. 32, No. 1, 2017). The researchers modified the program by, for instance, incorporating storybooks that featured African-American characters and values (Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Treeopens in new window" was replaced by Derrick D. Barnes's "Stop, Drop, and Chillopens in new window") and by using examples of problem behaviors taken directly from teacher reports, such as kids trading insults on the school bus. Compared with the control group, students who received the intervention demonstrated improved social-emotional knowledge, self-competence and self-regulation skills. The program did not, however, have a significant effect on empathy, responsibility or teacher reports of externalizing behavior.
In another study, Sara Castro-Olivo, PhD, associate professor of educational psychology at Texas A&M University, tested the effect of "Jóvenes Fuertes," a cultural adaptation of the "Strong Teens" program for Latino English-language learners, on the social-emotional knowledge and resiliency of 102 middle and high school students ( School Psychology Quarterly opens in new window, Vol. 29, No. 4, 2014). In addition to delivering the program in Spanish, the researchers administered specialized sessions designed to help students cultivate ethnic pride, handle familial acculturative gaps and cope with discrimination.
"These kids experience a cultural gap between home and school, and they need specialized social and emotional skills to navigate the two different worlds," she says.
The intervention increased students' social-emotional knowledge and resiliency, and 94 percent of those who participated said they liked the program. Castro-Olivo says future studies should also measure problem behaviors and attempt to determine which subsets of the population—certain age groups or genders, for instance—benefit most from "Jóvenes Fuertes."
Hybrid models
Now, several researchers are interested in developing models that combine culturally grounded interventions with traditional mental health and behavior-modification programs. Aston, for example, is working to launch a hybrid intervention that combines Afrocentric elements similar to those featured in "Sisters of Nia" with a cognitive-behavioral therapy program to address symptoms of depression and anxiety, for instance by teaching students about mindfulness and thought stopping.
"While I've witnessed the benefits of Afrocentric-based interventions like ‘Sisters of Nia,' these programs weren't specifically designed to address mental health problems," Aston says. "So, by combining these interventions, we can provide students with both a cultural piece and a mental health piece."
Graves is also building a program that will cover culture, social-emotional skills and problem-solving, with versions for elementary, middle and high school students. Like "Sisters of Nia," the intervention will teach Afrocentric values and introduce students to role models in their communities; it will also train students to deal with anger and other social-emotional challenges. Graves is drawing on lessons learned from years of experience testing interventions in schools.
"We've seen that over time, children become numb to the violence in their communities. They begin to internalize it as a normal part of their lives," says Graves. "That's why the interventions I'm designing will start by targeting elementary school kids, because the earlier we can teach them coping skills, the better."
Meanwhile, even as researchers work to develop and test culturally relevant interventions, they recognize that getting schools to embrace them may be a challenge. Graves and Belgrave say that such efforts should start small and build momentum, garnering more money for mental health services in schools and empowering administrators to implement tailored programs.
Aston and Castro-Olivo suggest a more political route: lobbying decision-makers at the district and state levels to require that school-based mental health interventions be culturally appropriate. Without such a mandate, individual schools and teachers are unlikely to allocate the time and resources to develop their own programs, says Castro-Olivo, who is an advisor for the Chicago-based Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning's Collaborating States Initiativeopens in new window, which works with state governments to add social-emotional learning to public school curricula.
"If it's not policy, teachers just feel that an adapted intervention is one more thing to worry about, and they are already overwhelmed," she says. "But if it becomes policy, they will get the resources, training and support they need—and everyone will see the benefit."
Ultimately, the mounting evidence behind culturally relevant interventions is the best predictor of their success, says Janine Jones, PhD, associate professor and director of the school psychology program at the University of Washington in Seattle.
"We're seeing growing numbers of scholars doing what they can to show the efficacy and importance of using cultural adaptations in schools," Jones says. "The more data we have, the less resistance we will have to deal with. And as a result, more schools will be accepting of using these interventions to reach diverse students."
