Negotiating Boundaries and Bonds: Frequency of Young Children’s Socialization to Their Ethnic/Racial Heritage

Abstract

This study addressed intergroup differences in how often U.S. families socialized young children to their ethnic/racial heritage using nationally representative survey data gathered as part of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K).The sample ( N = 18,827) included young White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, American Indian, and multiracial children. Among other things, the authors found that families raising young American Indian children were likely to socialize them frequently to their ethnic/racial heritage. Also, most intergroup differences in frequency of ethnic/racial socialization were robust across child gender and parental education.