The Role of Race and Ethnicity in Parental Ethnic-Racial Socialization: A Scoping Review of Research

Abstract

Over the past 35 years, ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) has been a widely studied topic in psychological and cultural research. Most popular among the populations that ERS research centers are Black/African American families and youth. However, a small, but emerging body of research on the ERS processes of other racial/ethnic groups suggest that ERS is not limited to Black/African American families. Recently, scholars have begun to ask more critical questions regarding the differential effects of ethnic-racial socialization on non-Black youth’s psychological development. Therefore, the current review of research draws together studies on Black/African American, Biracial, Latinx, Asian American, and White American families to demonstrate the role of racial/ethnic group identification in soliciting the exchange of ERS messages from parents to children. The methodology used to execute this review follows a modified framework which includes four key phases of searching and selecting appropriate studies. From three multidisciplinary and psychological databases, 24 studies were selected based on the inclusion criteria set by the researcher. The studies discussed in this scoping review all revealed how racial/ethnic group identification solicits the exchange of ERS messages from parents to children in some way.