Built on Dignity, Backed By Love: A Mixed Methods Study and Curriculum Centering Black Caregivers' Racial Socialization to Cultivate Youth Agency

Introduction:

This presentation examines how Black youth and their caregivers experience, interpret, and respond to racial discrimination, centering dignity as a culturally grounded resilience process. Grounded in a mixed-methods, community-based participatory research (CBPR) design, this study pursued three primary aims: (1) to identify the forms of racial discrimination experienced by youth and caregivers and their relationship to racial stress and resilience; (2) to define dignity from the perspectives of youth and caregivers; and (3) to examine how caregiver-youth conversations foster dignity, informing the creation of the Dignity Development Curriculum (DDC).

Methods:

Data were gathered from semi-structured interviews, community forums, and validated quantitative measures of racial identity, attachment, parenting self-efficacy, school connectedness, and resilience.

Results:

Quantitative results revealed high levels of youth resilience, strong racial identity, secure caregiver-child attachment, and a sense of school belonging. Qualitative findings highlighted the pervasiveness of structural, cultural, interpersonal, and internalized racism—experiences that current racial stress measures fail to fully capture. Dignity emerged as a core concept defined by participants as a sense of identity, moral clarity, and inner worth that actively resists dehumanization. Caregivers and youth described racial socialization practices—including cultural traditions, appearance management, and intentional dialogue—as key strategies in cultivating resilience and affirming youth identity. The study builds on RECAST theory, Resilience Theory, and Critical Race Theory by positioning dignity as a vital, developmentally significant coping resource. Community forums were integral not only to data validation but also to healing, empowerment, and community-led insight. These dialogues informed the development of the DDC, a culturally responsive intervention designed to help families navigate racialized environments with confidence and clarity.

Conclusion and Implications:

Findings offer important implications for social work practice, education, and mental health services: namely, the need for dignity-affirming interventions, clinician training on racial stress, and systemic reforms to combat institutional racism. This work affirms the transformative power of participatory research and dignity-centered approaches in promoting equity, resilience, and healing for African American youth and their families.