Understanding the Potential of Youth Participatory Action Research to Improve African American Youth Mental Health Outcomes

This study is an in-depth, qualitative research study with a longitudinal design that will assess if and how post-traumatic growth and radical healing are experienced among Black/African American youth (ages 13-18) exposed to racial trauma who participate in a YPAR intervention. Our longitudinal qualitative design, with quantitative integrated only for qualitative comparison by group purposes, allows us to explore shared patterns and differences across youth-serving contexts without neglecting person-level factors (i.e., racial identity and racism-related stress) that may impact the experience of post-traumatic growth and radical healing among Black/African American youth exposed to racial trauma. Our approach is grounded in the involvement and perspectives of youth and adult supporters in our respective communities.