White Parents’ Racial Socialization: Questionnaire Validation and Associations with Children’s Friendships

Abstract

White parents’ approaches to racial socialization can have significant consequences for children’s understanding of race, racial bias, and racial justice. Across three studies, we attempted to identify three racial socialization practices that White parents employ. In Study 1, 238 White parents self-reported their racial socialization practices and listed their children’s friends’ age, race, and gender. Exploratory factor analysis suggested evidence for three scales: race-consciousness, discussion-hesitancy, and race-evasiveness. Parents’ discussion hesitancy was positively associated, and race consciousness negatively associated, with the racial homogeneity of their child’s friendship group. In Study 2 (N = 79), White parents’ discussion-hesitancy was again positively associated with the racial homogeneity of their child’s friendship group. In Study 3, with 21 White parents and their children independently reporting, White parents’ discussion hesitancy was again positively associated with the racial homogeneity of their child’s friendship group. Parents’ comfort level when discussing race and parents’ intergroup contact provided additional validational evidence.