Conclusions and Directions for Future Research Concerning Racial Socialization

Abstract

The overall findings incorporated in these exploratory studies suggest that parental racial socialization processes are an important factor in: determining favorable outcomes related to youth and parental mental health, and influencing important decisions; such as youth avoiding violent confrontations. A strong sense of ethnicity appears to be a strong protective factor for the mental health and behavioral outcomes of these inner city youth and their families. These multiple effects of parental racial socialization processes suggest that this variable is an important feature in the day to day lives of African American families residing in low income inner-city environments; therefore, the examination of parental racial socialization processes could be included in future studies on resilience in minority populations. Data also revealed that several parental racial socialization processes constructs explained family use of child mental health services. Those providing services to urban adolescents need to be knowledgeable about the effects that culturally and contextually specific variables have on youth residing in urban environments. Therefore, it is important that future research studies on child mental health service use for urban families of color includes culturally specific factors such as parental racial socialization processes. Furthermore, although this study focused specifically on low-income urban youth and families, future studies must investigate the influence of parental racial socialization processes on youth and family mental health outcomes across urban, suburban, and rural, as well as economic strata. This type of research could provide invaluable information on the process of how parental racial socialization processes influence youth and family outcomes across a broad spectrum.