A Systematic Review of African-Centered Therapeutic Interventions with Black American Adults

While substantial theoretical literature and growing evidence support the benefits of employing African-centered approaches with Black youth, research examining the overall effectiveness of Culturally Sensitive Interventions with Black adults remains largely unexplored. Responsively, this review discusses the current scope of African-centered interventions with Black American adults. Using a comprehensive search of electronic bibliographic databases, we identified African-centered interventions studies completed in the United States. Six studies met the full inclusion criteria of our review. Findings support that ACIs are associated with positive outcomes in Black adults’ self-concept, cultural identity, emotional coping skills, and reduction of depressive symptoms. However, given the small number of studies and concerns regarding the heterogeneity in studies’ methodological rigor, we recommend additional research to expand our understanding of African-centered interventions to guide practice interventions with Black adult clients.