Forms of Racial Discrimination Study

NCT03720600 | Completed

• 2 other identifiers: 20180261R36MH116678-01
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 76
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The project aims to evaluate a brief intervention for coping with racism-related experiences for people of color and examine momentary factors that may buffer the negative mental health impact of racism.

Conditions

Psychological Distress

Keywords

mindfulness; acceptance; racism

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale scores

  21-item self-report measure of past-week depressive and anxious symptoms. Each item is rated on a 4-point Likert scale (0= Did not apply to me at all, to 3= Applied to me very much or most of the time). Subscale scores are summed, with higher scores indicating more persistent depressive or anxious symptoms.

  Baseline and two weeks later

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Momentary changes in Positive And Negative Affect Scale

  four times a day for two weeks

• Quantitative measure of intervention helpfulness

  Two weeks after baseline

Study Arms (3)

MAB Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in this condition will be asked to come into the laboratory twice. At Time 1 (T1), participants in this condition will watch a voice-guided PowerPoint on MAB strategies for coping with discrimination. For the following two weeks, they will be asked to complete multiple momentary assessments daily for two weeks. After two weeks, participants will return to the laboratory to complete a final battery of questionnaires and complete a qualitative exit-interview.

Behavioral: MAB Intervention

Waitlist-Control

OTHER

Participants in the "waitlist-control" condition will be asked to come into the laboratory twice. At Time 1 (T1), participants in this condition will complete an initial set of questionnaires. For the following two weeks, they will be asked to complete multiple daily momentary assessments daily. After two weeks, participants will return to the laboratory to complete a final battery of questionnaires, watch a voice-guided PowerPoint on MAB strategies for coping with discrimination, and complete a qualitative exit-interview.

Behavioral: MAB Intervention

No-EMA Control

NO INTERVENTION

Participants in the "No-EMA Control" condition will only complete questionnaires at T1 and T2.

Interventions

MAB Intervention BEHAVIORAL

The intervention is a 60-minute voice-recorded PowerPoint presentation on a mindfulness- and acceptance-based (MAB) intervention adapted from Eustis et al. (2017). This adaptation was informed by research on MAB therapies and other approaches to coping with discrimination (e.g., Watson, Black, \& Hunter, 2016), as well as clinical experience providing an in-person workshop on MAB strategies for coping with racism-related stress.

MAB Intervention; Waitlist-Control

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• 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)

You may not qualify if:

• Has lived in the U.S. for less than 5 years
• Not fluent in English
• Identifies as White, European American

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Massachusetts, Boston: lead
• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of Massachusetts Boston

Boston, Massachusetts, 02125, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Racism

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Prejudice; Social Behavior; Behavior; Social Discrimination

Study Officials

• Jennifer H. Martinez, M.A.

  University of Massachusetts, Boston

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Doctoral Candidate

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 22, 2018
• First Posted: October 25, 2018
• Study Start: September 26, 2018
• Primary Completion: June 1, 2020
• Study Completion: June 1, 2020
• Last Updated: September 13, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-09

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, ICF, CSR

Locations

US (1)