Supporting Faith-Based Communities Through and Beyond the Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought widespread and notable effects to the physical and mental health of communities across New York City with disproportionate suffering Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino communities alongside additional stressors such as racism and economic hardship. This report describes the adaptation of a previously successful evidence-based community engagement health education program for the deployment of resilience promoting workshop program in faith-based organizations in BIPOC communities in New York City. From June 2021 to June 2022, nine faith-based organizations implemented 58 workshops to 1,101 non-unique workshop participants. Most of the workshops were delivered online with more women (N = 803) than men (N = 298) participating. All organizations completed the full curriculum; the workshop focused on self-care and physical fitness was repeated most frequently (N = 13). Participants in the workshops ranged from 4 to 73 per meeting and were largely female. The Building Community Resilience Project is an easy and effective way to modify an existing, evidence-based community health education program to address new and relevant health needs such as resilience and stress amidst the COVID-19 pandemic among faith communities serving BIPOC populations. More research is needed regarding the impact of the workshops as well as adaptability for other faith traditions.

Racial discrimination and trauma symptoms: Further support for the Race-Based Traumatic Stress Symptom Scale.

OBJECTIVES: This study provides further validity for scores produced by the Race-Based Traumatic Stress Symptom Scale (RBTSSS), through examining the relationship between perceived discrimination, trauma symptoms, and mental health symptoms with the RBTSSS. METHOD: Participants consisted of 148 people of color (54% women) with an average age of 33.38 years. Study hypotheses were tested using correlational and regression analyses. RESULTS: Validity was supported by strong relations with established symptom scores and perceived discrimination. Regression analysis found RBTSSS to be a significant predictor of trauma symptoms, controlling for general stress. Finally, multivariate analysis found perceived discrimination to be a stronger predictor of RBTSSS symptoms than general stress. CONCLUSIONS: The RBTSSS demonstrates strong relations with other symptom measures and perceived discrimination, supporting the validity of the RBTSSS scores. Both researchers and practitioners may benefit from use of the instrument which captures emotional outcomes specific to racial trauma. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Internalized racism and self-esteem: Do depressive symptoms matter?

OBJECTIVES: This study examines the relation between internalized racism and self-esteem in a sample of students of Color while controlling for depressive symptoms. Internalized racism has been demonstrated to contribute to negative mental health outcomes in people of Color, however the nuanced relations between these interrelated outcomes and internalized racism are unclear. METHODS: Participants were 140 students of Color (83% female; mean age = 26.11, SD = 7.21) who self-identified as African American (45.7%), Asian (18.6%), Latino (16.4%), Multiracial (16.4%), Native American (1.4%), and Middle Eastern (1.4%). Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear regression. RESULTS: Internalized racism was inversely related to self-esteem when controlling for depressive symptoms, with devaluation of one's racial group being the largest contributor to this relation. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological responses to internalized racism can include non-pathological states such as lowered self-esteem. Given the strong contribution of devaluation, for students of Color, the promotion of racial pride could be an important intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).