Transracial adoptions connect a child with a forever family, however narratives from adopted individuals reveal that adoptive families are not always for forever. The master narrative of transracial adoption is that children of color are placed into happy, White, families with whom they will spend the rest of their lives. This narrative overlooks that adoption necessitates the dissolution of another family. Therefore, if adoptive families do rupture, it represents a unique experience that needs to be understood in the context of adoption. To date, no research examines estrangement within adoption. Therefore, we conducted five focus groups comprising transracially adopted individuals of color who are estranged from their adoptive families (n=38). We are coding the data using thematic analysis (Braun and Clark, 2006), with two research questions: how do adopted individuals experience estrangement; what are the precursors to, and implications of, estrangement. Based on preliminary coding, topics highlighting the heterogeneity of estrangement are potential themes for defining estrangement; topics related to race and abuse are potential causal themes; phenomena related to family (adoptive, birth, and chosen), isolation, and empowerment are potential implication themes. The presentation will include the full analysis and will discuss a model of estrangement in adoption.

This research investigates the extent to which culturally aware faculty mentors inspire competence among students from racially marginalized and minoritized (RMM) backgrounds in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math research labs. Culturally aware mentors are those that recognize their own culturally shaped beliefs and perceptions, while being aware of cultural differences and similarities between themselves and their students. We recruited 585 undergraduate and graduate students (37.5% White, 37.5% Asian, 25% RMM) working in 118 faculty led STEM research labs across three universities. Faculty participants completed surveys measuring their cultural diversity awareness for race/ethnicity in STEM (e.g., “I think I do a good job of noticing interactions in the mentoring relationship that could be insulting or dismissive to mentees because of their race/ethnicity”), and their student researchers completed surveys measuring their self confidence in their skills, abilities, and performance (e.g., “I think I do very well on the tasks I am assigned in this lab”). Results indicate that students from racially marginalized and minoritized backgrounds in the context of STEM (but not White or Asian students) feel more confident in themselves when they work in research labs where the faculty mentor expresses greater cultural diversity awareness for race/ethnicity in STEM (β =0.28)

This study explored the views of Latinx youth surrounding the intersections of faith and familial values, social justice, and change. Through Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) researchers examined the stories of 15 Latinx young people across three domains: 1) Latinx Identity and Worldviews, 2) Problems with and in Religion, and 3) Creating Change. Findings from this investigation have resulted in 8 over-arching themes and several subthemes. The 8 themes include: 1) Immigration and Being Brown; 2) Sensitivity to the Plight of Others; 3) Intersections of Identity; 4) Forcing Religion; 5) Science, Society, and Spirituality; 6) Forming Friendships; 7) Adopting A Non-judgmental Attitude; and 8) Caring about and Helping People. Results shed light on some specific challenges, protective worldviews, and advocative motivations of spiritually and religiously engaged Latinx youth. ​

This paper explores African American high school football coaches’ experiences as athletes and coaches, centering the emotional and psychological impact of mentorship on at-risk ethnic and racial minority adolescents. Using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) researchers examined the stories of 21 coaches (age range: 27-53; average years coaching 14) who mostly worked in predominantly African American, low resource, school districts in the Southern U.S. Six domains arose from the data, including: 1) Football and Family, 2) The Why’s of Coaching, 3) Being a Black Coach, 4) Being a Black Player, 5) Coaching Different Kids, and 6) The Importance of HBCU’s. Twenty-four themes arose that detailed the impact of: family figures on coaches’ development; personal faith and mentorship experiences on the motivation to coach; cyclical, systemic, and interpersonal racism on work as a coach; dehumanization and exploitation on black player development; marginalized experiences on advocacy for different players; and participation in HBCU football on experiences of success as a young black man. Results shed light on the ways African American coaches use their own experiences of struggle to better the lives and trajectories of players.