The Black Parenting Strengths and Strategies Program–Racialized Short (BPSS-RS): “Real-World” Dismantle, Implementation, and Evaluation

The Black Parenting Strengths and Strategies (BPSS; Coard, 2003 ) is a 12-week manualized evidence-based parenting program designed to promote positive and culturally relevant parenting practices for fostering cultural, social, and behavioral competence in African American children. BPSS purposefully and strategically combines universal (commonly studied) approaches to parenting (e.g., monitoring, positive parenting) with inherent strengths and processes of African American families (e.g., racial-ethnic socialization) and attends to the unique challenges that African American parents face in childrearing (e.g., racism, discrimination). Feasibility and efficacy (highly controlled lab setting) for BPSS has been established via a randomized controlled trial (pre-intervention and immediate-post intervention) (Coard et al., The Counseling Psychologist, 35 (6), 797-820, 2007 ). Informed by a dismantling approach and developed to meet the expressed need of a community (community centered approach), The Black Parenting Strengths and Strategies–Racialized Short (BPSS-RS) is a 3-week abbreviated version of the BPSS intervention composed solely of racialized parenting and racial-ethnic socialization components. Evaluation of BPSS-RS was the focus of the current study given that it is unknown what outcomes the abbreviated version may yield, particularly when implemented in a “real-world” or “service as usual” environment. Based on pre-post analyses, participation in BPSS-RS resulted in significant improvements in proactive racial socialization, with no significant improvements in the other parenting variables. Furthermore, BPSS-RS participants showed high rates of attendance and satisfaction with the program. Results of this study provide additional support for feasibility and receptibility of the BPSS program, and highlight the potential effectiveness of culturally relevant intervention programs in improving parenting strategies believed to be most instrumental in helping youth respond to racism and fostering African American parents’ use of culturally relevant coping strategies with their children (i.e., racial socialization) in an effort to guard against the negative effects of racial discrimination and racism.