Racial and Ethnic Representation in Preventive Intervention Research: a Methodological Study

Abstract

Individuals who are Asian or Asian American, Black or African American, Native American or American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and Hispanic or Latino (i.e., presently considered racial ethnic minoritized groups in the USA) lacked equal access to resources for mitigating risk during COVID-19, which highlighted public health disparities and exacerbated inequities rooted in structural racism that have contributed to many injustices, such as failing public school systems and unsafe neighborhoods. Minoritized groups are also vulnerable to climate change wherein the most severe harms disproportionately fall upon underserved communities. While systemic changes are needed to address these pervasive syndemic conditions, immediate efforts involve examining strategies to promote equitable health and well-being-which served as the impetus for this study. We conducted a descriptive analysis on the prevalence of culturally tailored interventions and reporting of sample characteristics among 885 programs with evaluations published from 2010 to 2021 and recorded in the Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development registry. Inferential analyses also examined (1) reporting time trends and (2) the relationship between study quality (i.e., strong methods, beneficial effects) and culturally tailored programs and racial ethnic enrollment. Two percent of programs were developed for Black or African American youth, and 4% targeted Hispanic or Latino populations. For the 77% of studies that reported race, most enrollees were White (35%) followed by Black or African American (28%), and 31% collapsed across race or categorized race with ethnicity. In the 64% of studies that reported ethnicity, 32% of enrollees were Hispanic or Latino. Reporting has not improved, and there was no relationship between high-quality studies and programs developed for racial ethnic youth, or samples with high proportions of racial ethnic enrollees. Research gaps on racial ethnic groups call for clear reporting and better representation to reduce disparities and improve the utility of interventions. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11121-023-01564-8.

An Equity-Focused Assessment of Evidence-Based Parenting Intervention Research

“…Our review of studies demonstrates that, at least for the studies of EBPIs designated as having evidentiary support by the Clearinghouse, study participants were frequently from diverse backgrounds and of varied socioeconomic statuses. This finding is aligned with a recent study of the Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development program registry as well, in which most studies reported race (Buckley et al, 2023 ). Across studies included in their review, 65% of the study sample consisted of participants identifying as non-White, though there were substantial inconsistencies in how race and ethnicity were reported (Buckley et al, 2023 ).…”

“…This finding is aligned with a recent study of the Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development program registry as well, in which most studies reported race (Buckley et al, 2023 ). Across studies included in their review, 65% of the study sample consisted of participants identifying as non-White, though there were substantial inconsistencies in how race and ethnicity were reported (Buckley et al, 2023 ). Finally, it was relatively common for considerations related to diversity to be included in the conclusion sections of reviewed papers.…”

Applying an Equity Lens to Evidence-Based Preventive Interventions: A Systematic Review of Subgroup Findings from Experimental Evaluations

“…Concerns about the widespread dissemination of interventions that are tested for one sociodemographic group but uncritically applied to others (Murry et al, 2024;Pina et al, 2019;Thier et al, 2020) stem from the historic tendency in the U.S. to develop and/or implement EBPIs with a current majority population in mind (White of Western European descent; Buckley et al, 2023). This has led to oversight of the profound in uence that culture, race, ethnicity, and English language pro ciency have on outcomes.…”

“…Strayhorn et al (2024) de ne equitability of an intervention as the extent to which the health bene ts provided by an intervention are distributed evenly, such that all participants have a fair and just opportunity to achieve the desired outcome of the intervention. Building upon previous research that called for clear reporting and better representation of racial and ethnic minoritized populations to reduce disparities and improve the utility of preventive interventions (Buckley et al, 2023), we explore the prevalence of EBPIs that equitably bene ted minoritized youth.…”

“…Evidence is more likely to in uence decision-making when studies are implemented in familiar contexts (Mills et al, 2020). The eld, however, lacks guidance in understanding the reliability of effects across diverse groups and settings (Bryan et al, 2021;Buckley et al, 2023). Insu cient attention to heterogeneity can lead to inaccurate conclusions about the effectiveness of EBPIs in different contexts (Wiliam, 2019) and diminish scrutiny of whether interventions need cultural tailoring (Bo et al, 2023;Jackson, 2009).…”