Systematic Review of Cultural Adaptations of School-based Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Interventions for Students of Color

Research indicates school personnel use punitive and exclusionary discipline practices more often with students from particular racial and ethnic groups. In response to these trends, many researchers suggest a need to adapt experimentally validated social, emotional, and behavioral interventions to align with cultural characteristics of students. However, a gap exists between scholarly recommendations for culturally adapting interventions and methods for putting those suggestions into practice. As such, our understanding of the processes and procedures for adapting interventions for cultural alignment is incomplete. The current review, therefore, addressed this concern by systematically examining research on cultural adaptations to identify the most prevalent methods used. The research team identified 10 studies meeting the inclusion criteria indicating the need for additional research and development on culturally adapting school-based interventions. Within studies investigating cultural adaptations to school-based social, emotional, and behavioral interventions, researchers tended to use recommended procedures for considering adaptations such as engaging with stakeholders and reviewing program materials. More conceptual adaptations to metaphors, concepts, and goals of the intervention were reported less frequently. Results indicate that there is a need for additional research on developing and implementing cultural adaptations for school-based interventions.