Advancing the africentric paradigm shift discourse: building toward evidence-based Africentric interventions in social work practice with African Americans.(Report)

Social work practice with African Americans has evolved from a generalist perspective that tended to overlook cultural values to one that recognizes the need to incorporate cultural sensitivity and cultural competence. In particular, the strengths perspective (Hill, 1971, 1999; Saleebey, 1992), empowerment theory (DuBois & Miley, 1996; Solomon, 1976), and the person-in-environment framework (Germain, 1991) have supported the profession's move toward ethnic-centered interventions, which at minimum should emphasize the cultural competencies of the practitioners and attention to salient ethnocultural factors, such as beliefs, language, and traditions. Beyond recognizing strengths and cultural sensitivity, the Africentric paradigm is a complementary, holistic perspective that emerged as a response to traditional theoretical approaches that failed to consider the worldviews of historically oppressed populations. Africentric approaches address the totality of African Americans' worldview and existence, including their experiences of collective disenfranchisement and historical trauma as a result of slavery and persistent racial disparities. Interchangeably referred to as "Afrocentric," "Africentric," or "African-centered," interventions are based on the principle of reinstilling traditional African and African American cultural values in people of African descent. This approach stems from the premise that African Americans, for the most part, survived historically because of values such as interdependence, collectivism, transformation, and spirituality that can be traced to African principles for living (Akbar, 1984; Asante, 1988; Karenga, 1996; Nobles & Goddard, 1993). Over a decade ago, Schiele (1996,1997), Harvey (1985, 1997), and Harvey and Rauch (1997) began to develop and advocate for Africentrism as an emerging paradigm for social work practice. Indeed, a number of social work scholars have weighed in on the discourse, calling for a much-needed Africentric paradigm shift in social work practice with African Americans (Carlton-LaNey, 1999; Daly, Jennings, Beckett, & Leashore, 1995; Daniels, 2001; Freeman & Logan, 2004; Gibson & McRoy, 2004; Manning, Cornelius, & Okundaye, 2004;A. Roberts, Jackson, & Carlton-LaNey, 2000; Sherr, 2006; Swigonski, 1996; White, 2004). Harvey (2003) provided a general guide for a social work shift away from Western approaches to social work conceptualizations and practices with African Americans via an Africentric paradigm. Yet the paradigm shift has been slow in coming with respect to infusing Africentric theory and constructs into social work practice, education, and research.

Furthermore, although evidence-based practices (EBPs), those counseling and prevention programs that have the best-researched evidence, have become the "gold standard" for practice and research, there is a growing recognition that EBPs do not automatically translate intact across cultural lines (Bernal & Scharron-del-Rio, 2001; Davis, 1997). In fact, few EBPs are culturally congruent for African Americans. Conversely, Africentric interventions are culturally congruent practices specifically for African American populations and have demonstrated significant positive outcomes across several areas important to social work practice with African Americans, including increases in positive child, adolescent, and family development (Belgrave, 2002; Belgrave, Townsend, Cherry, & Cunningham, 1997; Constantine, Alleyne, & Wallace, 2006; Dixon, Schoonmaker, & Philliber, 2000; Harvey & Hill, 2004; Thomas, Townsend, & Belgrave, 2003; Washington, Johnson, Jones, & Langs, 2007). Other Africentric interventions have shown improved outcomes for incarcerated individuals and decreases in substance abuse and HIV risk behavior (Gant, 2003, 2007; Gilbert & Goddard, 2007; Harvey, 1997; Longshore & Grills, 2000; Nobles & Goddard, 1993). Although many Africentric programs show great promise, they lack the replications needed to become recognized as EBPs, and so most are considered emerging best practices--interventions that are promising but less documented and replicated than EBPs. This article begins to address the gap between evidence-based and culturally congruent Africentric interventions for African Americans.

Following a discussion of contemporary psychosocial concerns of African Americans and the relevance of Africentric interventions, we present a case for greater documentation and dissemination of the current emerging Africentric best practices to accelerate the infusion of Africentric-based interventions into social work practice. Based on our larger, ongoing project to establish a collective volume on Africentric best practices, this article presents a selected sample of emerging Africentric best practices in two categories--child, adolescent, and family development and substance abuse and HIV prevention--and discusses implications for social work practice, education, and research.

BACKGROUND ON AFRICAN AMERICANS' PSYCHOSOCIAL CONCERNS

African Americans make up approximately 13 percent of the U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004), and although the term "African American" may accurately reflect those individuals who are descended from slaves in this country, the more than 33 million individuals comprising various black ethnic subgroups (for example, Caribbean, Central and South American, and African immigrants) underscore the diversity of this population. The present discussion primarily addresses U.S.-born African Americans who have experienced deculturalization through historical trauma, starting with capture from Africa to the ongoing inequities in the United States.

Historical strengths of the African American family include a strong achievement orientation and work ethic, flexible family roles, strong kinship bonds, and a strong religious orientation (Hill, 1971). Today, African Americans continue to build on traditional strengths of kinship and spirituality (Hill, 1999), yet subgroups of African Americans experience serious negative outcomes and disparities. Although somewhere between a quarter and a half of today's African American families are considered middle class, African Americans continue to experience serious disparities in education, earnings, and employment compared with white Americans (Attewell, Lavin, Thurston, & Levey, 2004).

Many current health and mental health problems of black Americans can be traced to historical trauma resulting from slavery and persistent societal oppression (DeGruy-Leary, 2005). Historical and current racism underlie current barriers to healthy living for African Americans (Myers, 1988; Nobles & Goddard, 1993). Twenty-one percent of African Americans have reported no usual source of medical care and generally use clinic or emergency room care. Even with differences in income, insurance status, and medical need accounted for, race and ethnicity significantly affect access to and quality of health care for African Americans (Smedley, Adrienne, & Alan, 2002). The ...