Utilizing sociocultural identity to cope with poverty-related stress: methodological insights from developing a coping intervention

Abstract

Cultural identity affirmation, pride, and belongingness are known to protect youth from negative outcomes in the face of uncontrollable stresses such as discrimination, economic hardship, and community violence. Scholars have argued that racial, cultural, and other social identities serve as important coping resources, encouraging active coping and the use of social support and mitigating the impact of stress for marginalized youth. The Building a Strong Identity and Coping Skills (BaSICS) program was designed to improve mental health by targeting the skills, assets, and resources known to protect against developing emotional and behavioral symptoms and disorders. In the BaSICS intervention, youth explore their cultural and social identities to strengthen their understanding of, and connection to, positively supportive social groups via exploration of family and community cultural heritage. Youth are then encouraged to engage their collaborative coping skills founded in their sociocultural identities, working together on a project of collective community action. This methodological paper will describe the theory and development of the BaSICS identity development and collective coping module.