Previous research has documented the negative effects of racism on the psychological health of African Americans. However, consideration of racial socialization as a potential buffer against racism experiences has received limited attention. The present study investigated whether two types of parental racial socialization messages reduced the impact of racism on psychological functioning in a sample of 247 African American college freshmen (M=18.30). Results indicated that students who reported more racism experiences also had poorer levels of psychological functioning as indicated by higher levels of psychological stress and psychological distress. Parental messages emphasizing the use of African American cultural resources to cope with racism reduced the impact of racism on psychological stress only. Cultural pride messages predicted less psychological distress while messages emphasizing the use of cultural resources predicted greater psychological distress. However, neither message type moderated the relationship between racism experiences and psychological distress. These results suggest that racial socialization messages have complex relations to psychological functioning in African American college students.

Purpose of review: This review summarizes the recent literature examining nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) in adolescents, with a particular focus on how primary care pediatricians (PCPs) might assess and intervene as a common first point of contact. This NSSI review is timely and relevant, given the prevalence rates among adolescents, as well as its link to suicidal behaviors. Recent findings: NSSI is most prevalent among adolescents, with lifetime prevalence rates between 17 and 60%. With evidence that the most common age of onset is between 12 and 14 years, evaluating NSSI is a challenging yet necessary aspect of a comprehensive adolescent medical examination. The function of NSSI behaviors may have implications for effective treatment and should be included in assessment. The majority of research has indicated that NSSI serves an emotion regulation function, in that the behavior results in a decrease in intensity of adverse emotional states in the absence of more effective coping strategies. Summary: Considering the prevalence of self-injury among adolescents, the likelihood that PCPs will encounter NSSI in their practice is quite high. Given that more than 50% of youth do not receive needed mental health services, it is critical that PCPs assess for NSSI and intervene accordingly.

Emotional overeating, or eating in excess to soothe negative emotions, is a high-risk behavior for the future development of the binge-eating disorder (BED). The Emotional Overeating Intervention (EOI) is a culturally responsive, 10-week condensed dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills group intervention for adolescents endorsing emotional-overeating and binge-eating behaviors. The present study served as a secondary analysis of the intervention data, with the aim of using quantitative measures and qualitative interviews to examine intervention acceptability and DBT skill acquisition. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics for quantitative surveys and qualitative content analysis for interviews. Among the 15 adolescents (M_age = 15.40 years; 73.3% identifying as female; 100% identifying as Black) who participated in the EOI pilot trial, most identified learning acceptance-based DBT skills, particularly radical acceptance, as both highly acceptable and the most useful aspect of treatment. Participants reported increases in distress tolerance appraisal and emotion regulation cognitive reappraisal scale scores from baseline to post-intervention. Accordingly, acceptance-based DBT skills may be associated with change-based cognitive strategies, which may contribute to improvements in emerging BED pathology. Findings serve as an initial step in informing preventative models of scalable interventions for subthreshold BED among adolescents, by identifying variables that warrant investigation as potential mechanisms of change.