Forms of Racial Discrimination Study

This study focuses on the unique experiences of people of color (e.g., Asian American,
Black/African American, Latinx, Native, Multiracial), ways they manage coping with
race-related stress, as well as evaluating the effectiveness of a brief, one-hour
intervention focused on coping with racism. First, the study will evaluate the acceptability
and impact of a brief, single-session, 1-hour intervention aimed at addressing strategies for
coping with racism compared to a waitlist-control condition. The intervention will integrate
culturally-adapted approaches for enhancing compassionate awareness, emotional acceptance,
valued actions, and coping flexibility (CAAVAF). The study will also evaluate whether the
brief CAAVAF program will be associated with increased use of CAAVAF strategies
(compassionate awareness, emotional acceptance, valued action, and coping flexibility) in
response to racial discrimination over time and whether the brief CAAVAF program improves
mental health outcomes at the two-week follow-up. Second, the study aims to evaluate the
impact of CAAVAF strategies on mental health outcomes in response to momentary reports of
coping with discrimination and from pre- to two-week follow-up.

All participants will be asked to complete an online screening questionnaire, which will
include informed consent, demographic questionnaires, past experiences of discrimination, and
trait measures of coping. Participants will be randomized into a.) a CAAVAF program, b.) a
waitlist control condition with EMA, or c.) a control condition without the CAAVAF program or
EMA. Participants in the CAAVAF condition will watch a scripted CAAVAF psychoeducation video
during an initial laboratory session; in contrast, participants in the waitlist control
condition will watch the video in a second session (after two weeks of ecological momentary
assessment). Participants in both the CAAVAF program and waitlist control condition will be
given instructions on using an EMA cellphone application during the initial session for
repeated momentary assessments. Following this session, participants in the EMA conditions
will monitor their experiences of discrimination over two weeks, and report their mood and
strategies used. Participants will then return to the lab and complete a final battery of
questionnaires and a qualitative exit-interview. Participants in the control condition will
only complete pre questionnaires and questionnaires at a two-week follow-up.Study findings
will contribute to the existing literature by evaluating whether CAAVAF strategies are
effective buffers against racism-related mental health outcomes, and whether our CAAVAF and
EMA program facilitates the use of these strategies.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Self-identifies as a person of color (not white, European American)

- self-reported distress from racial microaggressions (score of 24 or higher on the
Racial Microaggressions Scale; this score is 1 SD deviation below the mean in an
unpublished dataset from a study conducted at the same institution)

Exclusion Criteria:

- Has lived in the U.S. for less than 5 years

- Not fluent in English

- Identifies as White, European American