The Intersection of Adolescent Development and Anti-Black Racism

Joanna Williams, PhD
Rutgers University

Andrew Fuligni, PhD
University of California, Los Angeles

ABSTRACT:
Adolescence—beginning around 10 years of age and ending in the early 20s—represents a particularly important period of experience and opportunity during which youth explore the world, develop a sense of agency, and define their identity. These years are also a key window during which the effects of racism are amplified and deeply felt. Experiences with racism within common contexts and spaces create different experiences for youth along racial lines. We cannot fully support the formation of identity and belonging and increasing agency and exploration for Black youth without considering the impact that anti-Black racism has on these developmental milestones.

 In this presentation, report lead Joanna Lee WillIiams, PhD, and co-author Andrew Fuligni, PhD, will discuss insights from developmental science on how racism and related inequities impact key developmental milestones of adolescence and review research-based recommendations to support Black youth within key social contexts of the middle and high school years.

Racial Microaggressions in Patient-Provider Interactions

Kacey Eichelberger, MD
University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville

Jonathan Kanter, PhD
University of Washington

ABSTRACT:
For several years, our team has been working closely with leaders at the University of Washington Medical Center to develop, scientifically evaluate, and implement interventions to address racial bias in medical care and improve provider’s capacity for more flexible, empathic, and connected antiracist responses to their patients. We have focused in particular on inter-racial provider-patient interactions and highly charged moments in medical exams when providers are likely to microaggress against patients. We have identified four key psychological processes that fuel microaggressions and other acts of bias in these moments and target these processes with contextual-behavioral science interventions that emphasize mindfulness and acceptance, rather than avoidance or suppression, to create behavior change. Embracing an antiracism agenda, we are particularly interested in addressing the processes that often frustrate diversity trainers, such as defensiveness, anxiety, passivity, and entrenchment in unhelpful behavior that are often observed even during anti-bias trainings. Overall, our research provides important scientific foundations that racial microaggressions are real and harmful; they must be understood as important determinants of the health and well-being of our patients and it is crucial to identify effective strategies to address them and improve inter-racial provider-patient interactions and relationships.

To request Dr. Kanter’s powerpoint slides, please email psmg@northwestern.edu

Predictive analytics in child welfare: An overview of current initiatives and ethical frameworks to inform equitable policy and practice

Paul Lanier, Phd
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Daniel Gibbs, JD
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

ABSTRACT:
The child welfare system is faced with high-stakes decisions every day that must balance goals of child protection with parental rights. The use of administrative data coupled with advanced analytic methods to drive decision-making in child welfare practice and policy has increased in recent years. For example, predictive analytics and associated approaches have been used to identify families at higher risk for future harm to target appropriate services. However, the potential for bias in algorithmic decision-making must be weighed against the potential benefits of using any new technology. Specifically, we must consider whether predictive analytics exacerbates or ameliorates existing racial differences in experiences with the child welfare system. In this presentation, we will 1) provide an overview of the current state of the field, 2) give several current examples of predictive analytics used in child welfare, and 3) present preliminary findings from our recent study that aimed to apply an existing ethical framework to a data-driven prevention initiative known as Birth Match.

Recent trends in suicide and nonfatal suicidal behavior in the US and implications for public health prevention

Deborah Stone, ScD, MSW, MPH
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

ABSTRACT:
Suicide is a continuing public health concern with rates having increased 33% between 1999 and 2019, with a slight dip in 2019 and another drop in 2020, according to provisional estimates. Further complicating this vexing issue are the added stressors associated with the ongoing and shifting COVID-19 pandemic, as well as ongoing concerns about data quality and potential misclassification of suicides. This presentation will showcase recent trends in suicide in the United States, including data on emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts and other related outcomes (e.g., mental health conditions, suicide ideation) during the COVID-19 pandemic as compared to earlier time points. Implications for suicide prevention going forward and a discussion of CDC’s comprehensive approach to suicide prevention, including a focus on populations disproportionately impacted, will round out the session.

To request Dr. Stone’s powerpoint slides, please email psmg@northwestern.edu

Translating Research into Protective Processes in African American Families: Buffering Effects of Race Related Experiences

Velma McBride Murry, Phd
Vanderbilt University

ABSTRACTS:
Discrimination has been linked to mental health disparities for African American parents and adolescents. Data from longitudinal studies of the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS) identified salient processes in African American families that have demonstrated effectiveness in promoting positive development among youth, including protective processes that buffer youth from the negative consequences of racial discrimination. These research findings were translated into the design, development and implementation of two RCT, with demonstrated efficacy and effectiveness in preventing the onset and escalation of substance use and risky sexual practices.  Recent analyses of these programs have shown spillover effects on several other outcomes and may hold for addressing the racial/ethnic disparities gap.  This presentation will highlight findings from several analyses of the Strong African American Families (SAAF) and Pathways for African American Success (PAAS) Programs in their effectiveness in inducing positive changes in a wide spectrum of behavioral and developmental beyond those targeted in the programs, with emphasis on the protective nature of adaptive racial socialization.  

Addressing Health Equity and Social Justice within Prevention Registries: Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development

Pamela Rose Buckley, Phd
University of Colorado Boulder

Karl Hill, Phd
University of Colorado Boulder

ABSTRACTS:
Registries of effective preventive interventions such as Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development play an important role in informing communities and policy makers about interventions that are likely to improve the lives of youths and their families. However, important challenges within prevention registries arise in addressing concerns about health equity and social justice. For example, a critical question is for whom do the certified interventions work? While establishing the internal validity of interventions appears to be the dominant focus across current clearinghouses (including Blueprints), issues of external validity are becoming more salient as program developers wrestle with barriers to implementation. Clearinghouses are positioned to play a useful role in identifying gaps in implementation to address external validity concerns, particularly those related to health equity and social justice.

 This webinar first presents an overview of the Blueprints registry, including standards for certification. We then discuss the sorts of concerns regarding adaptation/cultural relevance that registry staff and users encounter with increasing frequency. The webinar then presents the background and goals of a recently funded project that begins to address these concerns within Blueprints. While lack of representation of youth of color in health-related research studies has been well-documented, a critical evaluation of this omission has not been undertaken to substantiate this claim.  This new project will examine the representation of ethnic minority groups in preventive intervention research. This project will review and evaluate the nature, size, and/or scope of extant research involving representation of ethnic minority groups in preventive intervention research, thus serving as a vehicle for decision-making regarding the generalizability of EBIs listed on clearinghouse websites (such as Blueprints).

If you don’t look for it, you will probably not find it: Determining barriers to equitable implementation in healthcare settings

Rajinder Singh, Phd
South Central Mental Illness, Research, and Clinical Center
Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

ABSTRACTS:
The integration of health equity and implementation science is a relatively novel topic and there is a need for practical tools for researchers and practitioners. Methodological advancements in the integration between health equity and implementation science assist with the uptake of new treatments and at the same time, assist with reducing healthcare disparities. One such methodological advancement is the Health Equity Implementation Framework designed by Woodward and colleagues (2019). The original Health Equity Implementation Framework suggested enhancing existing implementation science frameworks with three health equity domains that have significant evidence to suggest they impact implementation: 1) culturally relevant factors of recipients (e.g., biases), 2) clinical encounter, or patient-provider interaction (e.g., discrimination), and 3) societal influences (social norms such as racism, political forces, physical structures, economic barriers, including but not limited to social determinants of health). This presentation will provide an overview of the Health Equity Implementation Framework, discuss practical ways to incorporate three health equity domains (culturally relevant factors, clinical encounter, and societal influences) into implementation determinants frameworks, and review an example of using the Health Equity Implementation Framework applied to Hepatitis C Virus and its treatment among Black and African American patients seeking care in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Vaccine equity: What we know and what we need to do and how implementation research can help

Lisa Hirschhorn, MD, MPH
Northwestern University

Rebecca Weintraub, MD
Harvard University

ABSTRACT:
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the spotlight on inequities in health care access and outcomes. While the rapid development of highly effective vaccines offers the opportunity to end the pandemic, the concerns, and emerging evidence in inequity to access as well as acceptability threatens to increase these disparities. Implementation research offers tools and approaches to help understand underlying determinants and inform strategies that need to be put into place to prevent worsening of the existing inequity.

To request Dr. Hirschhorn and Dr. Weintraub’s powerpoint slides, please email psmg@northwestern.edu

Structural Racism, Intersectionality, and Black Men’s Health

Lisa Bowleg, MA, Ph.D.
The George Washington University

Derek Griffith, Ph.D.
Vanderbilt University

ABSTRACT:
As a Black man, I Got 99 Problems and I Sure Ain’t Thinking about HIV at the End of the Day”: Thinking Critically, Structurally and Intersectionally about Black Men’s Health and Health Inequities

Traditional conceptualizations of health typically frame health primarily as a property of individuals (e.g., attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, behaviors), not as a property of systems and structures beyond the individual-level that constrain health, and in turn, shape health inequities and for historically oppressed groups such as Black people in the U.S.  As such, prevention scientists trained in conventional disciplines that have prioritized social-cognitive and biomedical frameworks exclusively, and those that have disdained  “nontraditional” methods (e.g., qualitative) have likely missed key opportunities to reduce racialized health inequities, primarily because of this predominant focus on the individual-level.  Using insights from my 20-year program of HIV prevention mixed methods research with Black men as a foundation, this presentation will:

• provide an overview of the critical theoretical frameworks (i.e., intersectionality, critical race theory, critical psychology) and social-structural perspectives that are fundamental to my research on Black men’s health;

• highlight qualitative narratives from that research to illustrate how Black men talk about the impact of social-structural factors (e.g., structural racism, police brutality, incarceration, unemployment) on their health and wellbeing; and

• advocate for prevention scientists to become more critically, structurally and intersectionally competent.  This competency is essential to prevention, and the ability to help reduce, not just document, health inequities among Black men at diverse intersections such as class, ethnicity, and sexuality.

Black men, mortality, and the COVID-19 pandemic: A syndemics approach.

In this presentation, Dr. Griffith will use a syndemics approach, informed by an intersectional lens, to make a case that Black men should be a larger focus of COVID-19 research, practice, and policy efforts in the United States. Syndemics are two or more epidemics interacting synergistically in ways that exacerbate their health consequences via disease concentration, disease interaction and the structural forces that underlie these factors. He argues that structural racism and the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic create a context for increased mortality from COVID-19, heart disease, and other factors.

To request Dr. Bowleg and Dr. Griffith’s powerpoint slides, please email psmg@northwestern.edu

Effects of Incarceration on Health and Well-Being of Individuals Across the Life Course: Implications for Preventive Interventions

Robynn Cox, Phd
University of Southern California
Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work

ABSTRACT:
This presentation will discuss the effect of incarceration on health and other measures of individuals post-release, highlighting key issues that may inform and guide preventive interventions from a reentry perspective.

To request the powerpoint slides from this presentation, please email psmg@northwestern.edu

Life and Death During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Multi-Level Racism, Syndemics, and the Transmission of Grief

David Chae, ScD, MA, BA
Tulane University

ABSTRACT:
Racial inequities in health are rooted in racism and represent a major social and moral dilemma. Racism is physically embodied through social, behavioral, and psychobiological mechanisms. In this talk, I will discuss the utility of a social-ecological and developmental lens to examine racism as a fundamental determinant of health. I present evidence that racism is responsible for increasing exposure to health hazards, and creates increased susceptibility to disease. Preliminary findings from my lab suggest that the co-occurrence of multiple health hazards linked to racism, including COVID-19 disparities, compromises health throughout the lifecourse.

To request Dr. Chae’s powerpoint slides or presentation, please email psmg@northwestern.edu

Introduction to PSMG Series: Systemic Racism and Prevention Science: Enhancing Social Justice to Achieve Health Equity

Velma McBride Murry, Phd
Vanderbilt University

Neely Williams, MDiv
Meharry Vanderbilt Alliance

Marlena Debreaux, MA, MS
Vanderbilt University

ABSTRACTS:
Disrupting Systemic Racism: Reimagining the Role of Prevention Science

Systemic racism and its consequences have been associated with numerous disparities, including altering the physical structure of an individual’s DNA(epigenetics),  when subjected to these toxic act. Efforts to address this socio-eco-political ills of systemic racism have primarily focused on describing ways in which these experiences influence  the everyday life experiences of minoritized individuals, families, and communities. While this line of inquiry has been informative, descriptively, there is a need to identify ways to disrupt systems and patterns that perpetuate systemic racism.  Such information can inform and guide the design of preventive interventions. A critical starting point is to re-examine and re-image ways to integrate race-related risk and protective processes in the design, development, and implementation of preventive intervention programs, expanding the line of inquiry beyond those who are recipients of systemic racism. This presentation aims to jumpstart the process to urge our field to deliberately consider ways to elevate social justice and equity lens in our work and engage active agents as disruptors of systemic racism.

A Call to Remember the Path Trodden Through Discrimination and Systemic Racism: Taking Actions on the road to Healing for the Wounded

“There can be no PEACE without JUSTICE and RESPECT of human rights.”
Irene Khan

From the backdrop of racism and discrimination in the deep south sixty years ago to this present point in history, I am poised to call out to all who will listen, it is time for a change. Our nation is buried in the pains of our past and the lack of hope for our future. Something has got the change for the good of all, and the future of the nation.  I offer up my story and highlight some of my journey with the intent of setting a context of racism and discrimination in the south and mid twenty century. My story is the story of many in my generation. My story is only meant to serve as an example to frame the conversation about reality and history of discrimination and racism that has be endured by the masses of African Americans (Black and Brown People) across this country. The context will vary from generations to individuals, nevertheless the impact has many of the same characteristics and outcomes. I will discuss the impact of Racism and Discrimination on the life of a sharecropper’s daughter in the deep south. Immediately moving the challenges that lie ahead of all who dare to make a difference in race relations in this country today. Ultimately, we will discuss the what, the why and how of dealing with Discrimination, Racism and Social Injustice thought the lenses of Prevention Science and Health Equity.

All Things Considered: Contemplating the Utility of Critical Race Theory to Enhance Racial Equity in Prevention Science

Critical race theory (or CRT) has recently entered into popular political discourse as a misrepresentation of American history and social policies. Despite this mischaracterization of CRT, the framework has been utilized for decades by scholars in various fields to better understand the role of racism in shaping differential outcomes in everything from law to education. Based upon five central tenets, CRT invites scholars to not only consider the prevalence and scope of racial discrimination but to consider how to co-construct more equitable futures with and for marginalized populations.  While critical race theory and social science have not always been compatible, social science research has further validated the tenets of CRT. Over the course of this presentation we will review the origins and central tenets of CRT, consider ways in which CRT may contribute to increased racial equity in prevention science, and discuss the role of implications for advancing racially equitable public policy.

To request the powerpoint slides from this presentation, please email psmg@northwestern.edu