Maternal color-consciousness is related to more positive and less negative attitudes toward ethnic-racial outgroups in children in White Dutch families.

Abstract

A prerequisite to anti‐racist socialization in families is acknowledging ethnic‐racial (power) differences, also known as color‐consciousness. In a sample of 138 White Dutch families from the urban Western region of the Netherlands with children aged 6–10 years (53% girls), observations and questionnaires on maternal color‐consciousness and measures of children's attitudes toward Black and Middle‐Eastern ethnic‐racial outgroups were collected in 2018–2019. Variable‐centered analyses showed that maternal color‐conscious socialization practices were related to less negative child outgroup attitudes only. Person‐centered analysis revealed a cluster of families with higher maternal color‐consciousness and less prejudiced child attitudes, and a cluster with the opposite pattern. The mixed results emphasize the importance of multiple methods and approaches in advancing scholarship on anti‐racism in the family context.