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Evaluation ViewAttendees 8

Panel Discussions

Culture / Ethnicity / Race

Panel Discussion 4 - From Acknowledgement to Advocacy: Confronting the Role of Racism in Child Mental Health

Friday, November 15, 2024
12:30 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Location: Franklin Hall 10, Level 4, Downtown Marriott
Earn 1.5 Credit
Keywords: Racial Trauma, Child, Mental Health Disparities
Recommended Readings: Goodrum, N. M., Cooper, D. K., Edmunds, S., Wippold, G. M., Bradshaw, J., Nguyen, J. K., Milburn, N., & Are, F. (2023). Achieving Equity in Child and Adolescent Mental Health by Addressing Racism Through Prevention Science. Adversity and Resilience Science, 1-10.,   Bernard, D. L., Calhoun, C. D., Banks, D. E., Halliday, C. A., Hughes-Halbert, C., & Danielson, C. K. (2021). Making the “C-ACE” for a culturally-informed adverse childhood experiences framework to understand the pervasive mental health impact of racism on Black youth. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 14, 233-247.,   Metzger, I. W., Anderson, R. E., Are, F., & Ritchwood, T. (2021). Healing interpersonal and racial trauma: Integrating racial socialization into trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for African American youth. Child Maltreatment, 26(1), 17–27.,   ,  

    Moderator(s)

  • Nada M. Goodrum, Ph.D.

    Assistant Professor
    University of South Carolina
    Columbia, South Carolina, United States

    • Panelist(s)

  • Funlola Are, Ph.D.

    Assistant Professor, Dept of Psychiatry
    University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
    Houston, Texas, United States

  • Sarah R. Edmunds, Ph.D.

    Assistant Professor of Psychology
    University of South Carolina
    Columbia, South Carolina, United States

  • Donte Bernard, Ph.D.

    Assistant Professor
    University of Missouri-Columbia
    Columbia, Missouri, United States

  • Alexandrea Golden, Ph.D.

    Assistant Professor
    University of Memphis
    Memphis, Tennessee, United States

  • Ryan DeLapp, Ph.D.

    Staff Psychologist
    The Ross Center
    Elmsford, New York, United States

Structural racism is detrimental to the mental health of children of color, particularly Black children, in the United States and globally (Iruka et al., 2022; Williams et al., 2019). Although CBT has significantly contributed to understanding and improving children’s well-being, racial/ethnic inequities remain due to structural racism. Yet, most CBT preventions and interventions to support children’s mental health do not explicitly acknowledge the role of racism or seek to address it. Rather, many programs target universal outcomes without considering families’ lived experiences of oppression. This gap is of critical significance given mounting evidence regarding the effects of structural racism on children and families of color, including effects on economic conditions, housing and neighborhood resources, police interactions, educational quality, contact with the child welfare system, voting power, and healthcare experiences, as well as hindrances to accessing services that could counteract some of these negative effects. In fact, racial disparities in accessing mental health services worsened between 2010-2017 (Rodgers et al., 2022). To move toward a more equitable society that promotes the well-being of all children, CBT practitioners and scientists must explicitly acknowledge and confront the effects of racism on child mental health.
This panel discussion will uncover the negative consequences of allowing racism to go unnamed as a root cause of child mental health difficulties and discuss strategies for addressing racism within CBT research and practice with families of color. Relevant to ABCT’s goals, panelists will discuss innovative approaches to leverage CBT science to promote equity, strategies to foster equitable relationships with diverse stakeholders, and methods to tailor, disseminate, and implement CBT interventions for traditionally marginalized groups. Panelists have extensive expertise in child mental health, racial trauma, CBT prevention and intervention approaches, equity-focused implementation science, intersectionality theory, and community-engaged research and practice. Panelists will offer actionable recommendations for moving toward more equity-explicit work that addresses racism through CBT.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:
  1. Define structural racism and describe its effects on child mental health.
  2. Distinguish between equity-explicit and equity-implicit approaches to addressing child mental health through CBT.
  3. Identify limitations of equity-implicit CBT approaches and the need for explicitly acknowledging and addressing structural racism.
  4. Describe intersectionality considerations, such as intersections of neurodivergence, race, gender, and sexuality.
  5. Discuss actionable strategies for addressing racism through CBT research and practice with children and families of color.
  6. Apply clinical and research skills to promote health equity for children and families of color through CBT.