Evan Auguste
About Evan
Evan focuses on addressing the mental health consequences of structural anti-Blackness through the lens of Black liberation psychology. Currently, his research involves community participatory, qualitative, and quantitative methods to examine the effects of disparate exposure to justice-contact and community violence for Black adolescents and state-induced migratory traumas for Haitian people. He also focuses on developing and piloting anti-carceral and community-based health interventions, such as the Association of Black Psychologists’ Sawubona Healing Circles to promote healing from an African-centered framework. His advocacy involves connecting with local, national, and international coalitions to promote policy and community change
Contributions
In the News
Publications
Explores the psychometric properties, factor structure, and construct validity of a trauma screen, the Structured Trauma-Related Experiences and Symptoms Screener (STRESS), in a detained adolescent sample support the STRESS as a reliable and valid trauma screen for use with detained adolescents. Suggests that both STRESS total symptom and criterion symptom count scores have clinical utility for intake-level mental health decisions in juvenile detention settings.
Draws from existing theory and empirical evidence to demonstrate historical and contemporary examples of psychology’s oppression of Black people through research and clinical practices and consider how this history directly contradicts the American Psychological Association (APA)’s ethics code.
Outlines the theory, development, implementation, and initial evaluation of the SHC intervention.
Explores that Black youth experience racial discrimination at higher rates than other racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Identifies how racism can simultaneously serve as a risk factor for adverse childhood experience (ACE) exposure, a discrete type of ACE, and a post-ACE mental health risk factor among Black youth. Extends the model by incorporating an intersectional and ecodevelopmental lens that elucidates how gendered racism framed by historical trauma, as well as gender-based socialization experiences, may have implications for negative mental health outcomes among Black youth.
Examines the extent to which microaggressions contribute to mental health difficulties, namely trauma reactions and depression, after controlling for other traumatic event exposures. Suggests that microaggressions are a clinically relevant factor in understanding mental health problems reported by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in the United States and warrant analysis, assessment, and intervention through a trauma lens.
Highlights the formation, work, and legacy of the American Psychological Association. Discusses how ABPsi is an organization essentially designed to help remedy the effects of racism and oppression on Black communities in America and throughout the diaspora.
States the relationship of Vodou to the mental health and identity of Haitian people is a nuanced one. Shows how Haitian people have shown themselves to be willing to try multiple pathways to health care when there is access.
Assesses the effectiveness of the MAYSI-2, a popular screening tool for mental health, on assessing poly-victimization (multiple types of trauma exposures) on justice-involved adolescents. Finds that the screen was an effective screening tool for poly-victimization in this population.
Discusses how individuals of the black race/ethnicity or those reporting greater levels of emotional distress are more likely to report short or long sleep duration. Suggests that emotional distress might partially explain racial/ethnic differences in unhealthy sleep duration between blacks and whites.
Shows that depression and Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) are major associated comorbidities. Suggests that the quality of an individual's health can be improved by the early detection of the symptoms of overlapping OSA and depression.