UGA Research Shows Strong African American Families Program Mitigates Mental Health Impact of Racial Discrimination on Black Adolescents. The seven-session SAAF program, originally designed to prevent drug abuse, reduces depression symptoms linked to racial discrimination in a study involving 472 youth aged 11 to 12.
Lead author Steve Kogan emphasizes the importance of addressing racism in society while equipping families and young people with tools to cope with challenges, highlighting the role of family support in buffering against the negative effects of racism on mental health. The study, “Family-Centered Prevention and Racial Discrimination on Depressive Symptoms Among Early Adolescent Black Americans: A Randomized Clinical Trial,” was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open.