One Talk at a Time: A Racial-ethnic Socialization Intervention for Diverse Families

Overview

This study is a randomized effectiveness trial that tests the online delivery of a video-based intervention (One Talk at a Time (OTAAT)) relative to a control group over a one-year span. Hypotheses include: 1.) The OTAAT intervention will increase parental motivation to engage in racial-ethnic socialization (RES) conversations, their skills and confidence in having these conversations, and the frequency and quality of these conservations; 2.) The OTAAT intervention will increase youth reports of their coping with discrimination, perceived efficacy in coping with discrimination in the future, ethnic-racial identity, and youth mental and academic outcomes; 3.) Greater parental discrimination and youth discrimination will moderate links between OTAAT intervention and parental ethnic-racial motivation + competency as well as youth ethnic-racial identity, coping, and psychosocial outcomes.

This study will employ a mixed methods longitudinal randomized control trial design. All parents and youth will be assessed at four time points (Baseline, 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month) using surveys. Investigators will also use an observational racial-ethnic socialization (RES) task at 3-months to complement self-report data where parents and youth will have taped RES conversations. Investiagtors will collect data with two balanced cohorts (Cohort 1 and Cohort 2). Parent-youth dyads (N=312) will be recruited through community-based organizations and diverse, public middle schools to reach a representative population of each racial-ethnic group. Specific recruitment procedures are included below. Once an identified parent-youth dyad is recruited into the study, parents and youth will complete separate Qualtrics baseline surveys online. Parents will then receive either the intervention or the control materials via email or text within 2 weeks (and be given a month to start intervention). OTAAT consists of 11 videos (3-5 minutes each) that include didactic modules and social modeling. The total intervention takes approximately 1.5-2 hours to complete online, and parents can move through the videos at their own pace. The control condition will receive web-based communication materials onsite, including communication videos. Subsequent research follow-ups will occur at 3-months, 6-months, and 12-months with both parents and youth via Qualtrics. After the initial intervention, parents will receive 6 additional OTAAT contacts via text messages/newsletters that will be spread out across the year with contacts at 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, and 10 months after the initial intervention. These contacts will include a short survey assessing the use of Ready, Set, Talk skills and setting times for having RES conversations. Parents in the control condition will similarly receive text messages/newsletters at the same time points. At 3-month follow-up, parents and youth will also complete a video-recorded RES observational task via a virtual platform or in-person depending on family preference. During the observational task, parents and their children will be asked to spend five minutes discussing four discrimination encounters. During these conversations, parents will be asked to talk to their child about race and culture as they would at home in a natural manner. The task will take approximately 25-30 minutes to complete.