A Brief Social Belonging Intervention Improves Academic Outcomes for Minoritized High School Students.

Disparities between racially minoritized (Black/Hispanic/Native American) and nonminoritized (White/Asian) students in educational outcomes-both in terms of opportunity and achievement-continue to characterize the American educational system. Social belonging interventions, which shift student construal of social adversity experienced in school, have been shown to be effective with college students (Walton & Cohen, 2011) but have not been tested with high school students. We developed and tested such an intervention in a randomized controlled trial with students transitioning from middle school into high school. Participants (N = 162; 18% minoritized, 79% nonminoritized, 57% women) were randomly assigned to receive intervention or control materials during an optional summer orientation program. By the end of their first year, students in the treatment condition had 46% fewer unexcused absences (95% CI [-66%, -15%]), 36% fewer tardiness records (95% CI [-63%, 12%]), and gained more friends (d = 0.59) than did participants in the control condition. The intervention was particularly effective for racially minoritized participants: Those in the treatment condition failed fewer classes (d = -0.86), earned higher grades (d = 0.90), and received 82% fewer disciplinary citations (95% CI [-97%, 26%]) by the end of the academic year than did their minoritized peers in the control condition. These gains represent reductions in racial gaps ranging from 86% to 100%. Our findings indicate that social belonging interventions might partially redress racial equity gaps in secondary education. Discussion centers on the potential psychological and behavioral mechanisms underlying the intervention.