Racial Socialization, Color-Blind Racial Ideology, and Mental Health Among Black College Students

Abstract

The ecological model of racial socialization (EMRS) was tested among a sample of 207 Black college students from a predominately White Midwestern university. The EMRS explored the relations between the racial composition of participants’ social contexts and racial socialization provided by both parent and peer sources. In addition, the model addressed the relations among racial socialization provided by multiple sources, color-blind racial ideology (CBRI), and mental health. Findings from hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated partial support of the EMRS. Specifically, the racial composition of participants’ neighborhood and friend group accounted for a unique amount of variance in messages about cultural pride and alertness to racism participants received from both parents and peers. Additionally, peer alertness to racism messages accounted for a significant amount of variance in both CBRI and mental health. Finally, CBRI moderated the relation between parental mainstream racial socialization messages and mental health, such that Black young adults, who have higher levels of color-blind racial beliefs, are negatively affected by mainstream socialization messages provided by parents of participants. Implications and future directions are discussed.