Disrupting and TRANSFORMing Race-Related Stressors to Address Psychosocial Inequalities and Promote Adolescent Adjustment

Racism is a chronic form of stress and trauma that undermines academic outcomes for youth of color. Yet current interventions fail to adequately address the individual and cumulative effects of the stress and trauma that racism causes. Trauma and Racism Addressed by Navigating Systemic Forms of Oppression with Resistance Models (TRANSFORM) is a group-based intervention for youth in grades 6-12 who identify as Black or Indigenous, or as a person of color designed to disrupt and heal racial stress and trauma by equipping participants with skills to name, resist, respond, and thrive in the face of racism. With this award, Adjah aims to examine the direct effect of the TRANSFORM intervention on youth participants and explore the factors that hinder and promote implementation fidelity. Adjah will develop expertise in conducting school-based, randomized controlled trials through mentorship from Adriana Umaña Taylor, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Professor of Education at Harvard University. Gabriela Livas-Stein, Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas Austin, will provide mentorship in applying interventions within and across racial-ethnic groups.