(PS8-16) A Cultural Adaption of ACT to Address Racial Trauma and Suicidality Among Black Multiracial Youth

Multiracial Black youth face elevated suicidality (28.4%) and significant exposure to racial trauma (22.6%), highlighting urgent public health concerns. Navigating racial ambiguity, external pressures, and diverse family dynamics significantly shapes identity narratives and well-being. Yet, Multiracial Black youth also demonstrate resilience through intergenerational wisdom, community support, and advocacy empowerment.

This conceptual adaptation integrates literature, expert consultation, multiracial theory, and lived experiences to propose a culturally responsive Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) model for racial trauma and suicidality among Multiracial Black youth. ACT’s defusion and acceptance techniques are tailored to address harmful internalized racial narratives, while mindfulness practices encourage openness toward racial stress without over-identification (Payne, 2021, 2022). This culturally adapted ACT model incorporates liberation psychology’s emphasis on solidarity, critical consciousness, and liberatory healing practices, such as ancestral connection, spirituality, and artistic expression (Comas-Díaz, 2020; Martín-Baró, 1986, 1994). The model further integrates intersectionality to acknowledge systemic oppression’s multifaceted impact on identity development (Adames et al., 2018; Crenshaw, 1989).

Clinicians utilizing these culturally adapted strategies can enhance psychological flexibility, resilience, and coping among Multiracial Black youth, advancing ACT’s application to racial identity within affirmative behavioral therapies (Barnes et al., 2023; Pérez-Romer, 2020; Sánchez-Millán, 2022).