Evaluating Parenting While Black: Growing and Healing Together

Background: Events of recent years have brought urgent national attention to the disproportionate educational and mental health burdens endured by Black youth, families, and communities. Black parents and caregivers often withstand the worst of much of these challenges, having to contend with not only typical parenting responsibilities, but also the additional needs of their children in managing their positionality as oppressed group members in the United States. Yet while there are widely available evidence-based resources for typical parenting challenges, analogous evidence-based resources for Black parenting experiences are scarce. In response, the current study assessed results from an expanded study of the program Parenting While Black: Growing and Healing Together (PWB), a strengths-based, 8-week program serving Black parents and caregivers that is co-designed and facilitated by university researchers, community collaborators, and parents themselves. PWB leverages best-practice research and intergenerational cultural knowledge within the racial socialization framework to deliver a first of its kind community-collaborative learning and support program for Black primary caregivers.

Methods: The study draws from pre- post- survey results from more than 60 respondents across 3 waves of PWB cohorts carried out between 2021 and 2023. Outcomes assessed include composite variables of parenting confidence and skill perceptions for racial socialization strategies; frequency of usage of racial socialization practices; and educational involvement strategies at home and school settings. An additional 30 post-program interviews were conducted with program participants after completion to assess their experiences with program quality and utility. Descriptive statistics, multivariate regression and means difference testing were used to analyze survey results, while thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative interview data.

Results: T-tests of pre- and post- assessments suggest statistically significant differences in parents’ usage of optimal racial socialization strategies and educational involvement. These gains include increased recognition of their children’s discrimination experiences (ES=1.54, p<.000), usage of pride socialization strategies (ES=.87, p<.000), decreases in race-blind messaging (ES=-.12, p=.029), and increased parenting confidence (ES=.66, p=.002) and skill self-perceptions (ES=.87, P=.000). Parents also reported increased levels of involvement activities both at home (ES=.46, p=.004), and at their children’s schools (ES=.40, p=.002). Qualitative interview results suggest overwhelmingly positive experiences with the program among participants, with particular attention to the affirming group dynamic. In the words of one parent participant, “I appreciated the opportunity to discuss important issues of race with other parents of color. It was empowering to have my concerns echoed by my peers.”

Implications: While limited by a relatively small sample size, the findings here nevertheless provide compelling preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of Parenting While Black as both an empowering and skill enhancing intervention for Black families and communities in the face of intergenerational racism experiences. The results here also demonstrate the potential effectiveness of community-collaborative approaches to family empowerment, as the co-facilitators for these groups were parents from the community themselves.