A Brief Social-Belonging Intervention Improves Academic and Health Outcomes of Minority Students
A Brief Social-Belonging Intervention Improves Academic and Health Outcomes of Minority Students
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DOI：
10.1126/science.1198364
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发表时间：
2011-03-18
期刊：
影响因子：
56.9
通讯作者：
Cohen, Geoffrey L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Walton, Gregory M.;Cohen, Geoffrey L.
一项旨在增强大学新生在校社会归属感的简短干预措施在一项随机对照试验（N = 92）中进行了测试，并报告了其 3 年多的学业和健康相关后果。该干预措施旨在通过将社会逆境视为普遍且短暂的现象来减少对校园威胁的心理感知。它使用微妙的态度改变策略来引导参与者自行产生干预信息。预计干预措施对非洲裔美国学生（N = 49）特别有利，这是学术界被刻板印象和社会边缘化的群体，而对欧洲裔美国学生（N = 43）则不太有利。与这些预期一致，在 3 年观察期内，干预措施相对于多个对照组提高了非裔美国人的平均绩点 (GPA)，并将少数族裔的成绩差距缩小了一半。这种表现的提升是通过干预对主观解释的影响来调节的：它阻止学生将校园逆境视为对其归属感的控诉。此外，干预措施改善了非裔美国人自我报告的健康和福祉，并减少了干预后 3 年报告的就诊次数。高年级调查表明参与者没有意识到干预措施的影响。结果表明，社会归属感是一种心理杠杆，有针对性的干预可以产生广泛的影响，减少成就和健康方面的不平等。
A brief intervention aimed at buttressing college freshmen's sense of social belonging in school was tested in a randomized controlled trial (N = 92), and its academic and health-related consequences over 3 years are reported. The intervention aimed to lessen psychological perceptions of threat on campus by framing social adversity as common and transient. It used subtle attitude-change strategies to lead participants to self-generate the intervention message. The intervention was expected to be particularly beneficial to African-American students (N = 49), a stereotyped and socially marginalized group in academics, and less so to European-American students (N = 43). Consistent with these expectations, over the 3-year observation period the intervention raised African Americans' grade-point average (GPA) relative to multiple control groups and halved the minority achievement gap. This performance boost was mediated by the effect of the intervention on subjective construal: It prevented students from seeing adversity on campus as an indictment of their belonging. Additionally, the intervention improved African Americans' self-reported health and well-being and reduced their reported number of doctor visits 3 years postintervention. Senior-year surveys indicated no awareness among participants of the intervention's impact. The results suggest that social belonging is a psychological lever where targeted intervention can have broad consequences that lessen inequalities in achievement and health.