Applying Antiracist Research Principles in Psychology: A Case Study of The CARPE DIEM Project

Abstract

Historically, developmental psychology research has primarily studied White families through a color- and power-evasive lens and has applied deficit models to other ethnic-racial groups. To rectify inequities in the field and apply research that will promote racial justice, many individual researchers and the American Psychological Association (2019) have proposed antiracist guidelines to best guide researchers, support minority populations, and inform policy. For this poster, we extracted 38 antiracist research recommendations from six published articles, clustering them into four overarching principles, including 1) Supporting and amplifying BIPOC researchers and leadership, 2) Commitment to ethical translational and community-based participatory research, 3) Acknowledgement of researchers’ positionality and racial/ethnic bias within the project and commitment to ongoing learning, and 4) Explicit exploration of participants’ ethnic-racial identities, resilience, and systems of oppression. To illustrate these principles in action, we describe methods and team members’ reflections from The CARPE DIEM (Courageous, Antiracist, and Reflective Parenting Efforts: Deepening Intentionality with Each Moment) Study, a three-year, longitudinal, mixed-methods study evaluating an antiracist parenting intervention for White mothers and their young children. Implementing these principles encourages antiracist practices and equitable research that uplifts marginalized families and communities, and promotes a diverse, collaborative lab culture.