Introduction to the special issue, Building a Future for Education Equity Interventions.

In this Special Issue of the Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community, Building a Future for Education Equity Interventions, we acknowledge how research more often privileges those who write about it versus those who participate in it. The researchers in this special issue identify as women, people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, and international scholars. This special issue shares the work of several authors who provide conceptual and empirical findings demonstrating ways to protect young people's dignity and those communities marginalized by race, ethnicity, gender, and ability.

An investigation of coping in response to different race-related stressor experiences in school among racially diverse participants.

The landmark Brown versus Board of Education decision led to the desegregation of public schools in the United States. Consequently, Black/African American, Latinx, Asian, and Native American (BALANA) students experienced multiple race-related stressors. Not surprisingly, BALANA students still report experiences with racial discrimination, exclusion, and harassment in public schools. Encounters with race-related stressors in school can lead to maladaptive outcomes; however, for some young people, such stressors may induce a more adaptive coping response. The coping response may depend on the experience in school and the degree to which young people perceive they have control over the stressor. This study focused on the transactional nature of coping concerning different race-related stressors in school. The study investigates whether emotion-focused coping use prevailed across a sample of 165 ethnically and racially diverse participants. Results suggest that emotion-focused coping use is high among participants; however, the unique race-related stressor experienced in school can also lead to social-focused and other coping strategies. Coping with race-related stressors in school allows BALANA students to survive racism; reducing the presence of race-related stressors in school allows BALANA students to thrive. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

A Framework for Race-Related Trauma in the Public Education System and Implications on Health for Black Youth.

BACKGROUND: A combination of increased suicide in the past decade, documented high rates of anxiety and depression, and the preponderance of other behavioral and emotional regulation challenges place black youth at risk for school suspension and involvement in the juvenile justice system. Pointing to deficits in black youth and their families negates how forces of racism, whether unconscious or conscious, can disrupt well-being. METHODS: A framework for race-related trauma in the public education system illustrates the interplay between macro-level forces, such as institutional and symbolic racism, and micro level forces of racism such as racial discrimination and violence. Identifying causal links between these forces and adverse academic and health outcomes for black youth can inform interventions and strategies to reduce race-related trauma. RESULTS: The framework for race-related trauma is a multi-level analysis of racism and recognizes school districts facing economic restraints and school personnel turnover may face significant challenges in designing intervening strategies. CONCLUSION: The framework guides change effort towards improving school climate and culture through preparing school professionals to meet the diverse needs of youth, strengthening family and community collaboration, and tackling those policies and behaviors that exclude and disconnect black youth.

Regenerative medicine: a vehicle to infuse laboratory-bench modules into an exercise physiology curriculum.

Regenerative medicine is a novel discipline that both excites undergraduates and may be used as a vehicle to expose students to scientific concepts and opportunities. The goal of this article is to describe the implementation of a National Science Foundation-funded Targeted Infusion Project in which underrepresented minority undergraduates are exposed to laboratory-bench skills and summer research opportunities that they may not have encountered otherwise. A 3-wk infusion of laboratory-bench and data presentation skills, in the context of a regenerative medicine/bioengineering project, aimed to engage students and expose them to opportunities as summer researchers and teaching assistants. The infusion aimed to assess the extent to which students improved 1) attitudes toward laboratory-bench-based techniques, using attitudes toward science as a proxy; 2) perceptions of scientific inquiry; 3) intentions to engage in undergraduate research; and 4) intentions to persist in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related fields. Results indicate that the 3-wk infusion had no effect on science attitudes, but transcribed responses to structured interviews administered after the summer research experience indicated that students who completed summer research projects had positive experiences. Differences in intentions to engage in research were detected between groups of students in different STEM majors, in addition to differences in intentions to pursue a career in science. We describe the implementation of the infusion and briefly discuss quantitative outcomes. We conclude that infusion of laboratory-bench modules in the context of a regenerative medicine/bioengineering project may play a small but important role in increasing (minority) participation and persistence in the STEM pipeline.

"It Really Takes a Village": A Socio-Ecological Model of Resilience for Prevention Among Economically Disadvantaged Ethnic Minority Youth.

Promoting resilience prevents maladaptation among economically disadvantaged ethnic minority (EDEM) youth. EDEM youth need access to a variety of assets and promotive factors (i.e., resources) in the family, school, and community system to counter risks and promote positive adaptation. However, the field lacks a socio-ecological model of resilience for prevention targeted towards EDEM youth. We aim to review assets and promotive factors in the family, school, and community systems to present a socio-ecological model of resilience for the prevention of negative educational and health outcomes among EDEM youth. We reorient the social ecologies of EDEM youth from "at risk" to "at promise" focusing on family and community-centered prevention models. We discuss implications for the design of prevention strategies as well as their implementation and methodological challenges.

This Too Shall Pass: Evidence of Coping and Fading Emotion in African Americans' Memories of Violent and Nonviolent Death.

Two studies examined African Americans essays on coping with violent and nonviolent death and fading affect bias. Essays from 101 African Americans were coded for psychological resolution (resolved or unresolved) and for type of death (violent or nonviolent). Linguistic analyses were used to examine the experience of loss and coping methods. Religious coping was important for nonviolent death events while social support and emotion (e.g., crying) were themes that emerged for violent death events. For unresolved violent death events, dissociation was a common theme. The perceived change in the emotional intensity of the events was examined and revealed that the negative emotion showed evidence of substantial fading. Overall, these results suggest religious coping, social support and sharing enhance coping among African American participants. These processes can help negative affect associated with death events fade, allowing for psychological resolution, healing, and resilience.