Ethnic-racial Socialization Research Articles

Parental Ethnic-Racial Socialization in Multiracial Mexican Families

ABSTRACTEmpirical studies of parental ethnic-racial socialization are constricted to single-race or monoracial youths. This has led to a monocentric conceptualization of ethnic-racial socialization, one that negates the experiences of the growing population of multiracial youths. This exploratory qualitative secondary analysis (QSA) examined messages of ethnic-racial socialization present in multiracial Mexican families. These messages were compared and contrasted to existing conceptualizations of parental ethnic-racial socialization, those more representative of single-race or monoracial youths. In addition, this study utilized an ecological model of multiracial identity development to examine how parental ethnic-racial socialization messages inform different identity types associated with the multiracial experience. Findings generated from this study extend the field of familial racial-ethnic socialization to further encompass and more accurately represent the growing population of multiracial youths and their families. Implications for future research and practice with multiracial individuals and families are discussed.

Ethnic‐Racial Socialization and the Mental Health of African Americans: A Critical Review

AbstractThe purpose of this critical review is to examine the relationship between ethnic‐racial socialization (ERS) and African American mental health outcomes to identify the potential value of ERS in psychotherapy. Using the systematic research synthesis (SRS) process, we identified 21 peer‐reviewed studies that investigated the relationship between ERS and mental health outcomes such as anger, depression, and self‐esteem. We also included articles that tested ERS as a moderator of the relationship between discrimination experiences and mental health. The results support ERS as a protective factor against negative mental health outcomes. Importantly, ERS messages that emphasize culture and racial pride may be more consistently associated with positive outcomes than ERS messages that focus on preparing for racial bias. We also provide implications and suggestions for researchers wanting to expand the ERS literature and clinicians interested in incorporating ERS in their therapeutic practice and parent‐training programs.

Supplemental Material for The Relationships Among Perceived Discrimination, Marianismo Gender Role Attitudes, Racial-Ethnic Socialization, Coping Styles, and Mental Health Outcomes in Latina College Students

Supplemental Material for The Relationships Among Perceived Discrimination, Marianismo Gender Role Attitudes, Racial-Ethnic Socialization, Coping Styles, and Mental Health Outcomes in Latina College Students

Why Don't More Black Americans Offend? Testing a Theory of African American Offending's Ethnic-Racial Socialization Hypothesis.

Criminology is replete with research on the correlates of African American offending, yet theorizing efforts have lagged. Unnever and Gabbidon recently proposed a Theory of African American Offending, an integrated explanation of African Americans' risks for and resilience to offending. Many of the theory's hypotheses remain untested, especially its major claim that positive ethnic-racial socialization is the main reason more Black Americans do not offend. The theory argues that positive ethnic-racial socialization inhibits African American offending by attenuating the criminogenic effect of weak social bonds. Using data from a prospective, longitudinal cohort of African Americans from the Woodlawn Project, we test whether these postulations hold for adolescent delinquency and adult offending and find general support: Positive ethnic-racial socialization buffers the effect of weak school bonds on adolescent substance use and adult offending for males, but not females, across most crime types. Advancing criminological discourse on race, offending, and resilience, this study has implications for broader criminological theorizing and crime-reduction efforts.

Racial-Ethnic Socialization and Achievement: The Mediating Role of Academic Engagement

This brief report examined how racial socialization is directly and indirectly related to academic achievement for African Americans attending a predominantly White institution. We expected that students who received more racial socialization would exhibit better academic engagement and this, in turn, would help explain their academic achievement. The sample included 226 African American college students (76% female) between the ages of 18 and 22 years ( Mage = 20.05) who were recruited from the subject pool of the university’s psychology department and through general advertising across the university’s campus. Students participated by completing an online survey. Path analyses indicate that racial socialization messages about cultural pride (i.e., cultural socialization) were associated with academic achievement directly and indirectly through students’ engagement with school. However, racial socialization messages about future barriers were directly associated with academic achievement but not mediated by school engagement. Implications for studying academic engagement and racial socialization in African American college students’ academic achievement are discussed.

Parental ethnic-racial socialization and social attitudes among ethnic-racial minority and White American emerging adults.

This article utilizes moderated mediation analyses to explore whether the relations between parental ethnic-racial socialization (PERS) dimensions and social attitudes differ across ethnic-racial minority (n = 128) and White (n = 131) college-going emerging adults. We examined social dominance orientation (SDO) as an index of antiegalitarian intergroup attitudes and attitudes toward interpersonal harmony as an index of interpersonal attitudes. We tested whether there were ethnic-racial variations in mediation models in which each type of PERS dimension was expected to be linked to greater antiegalitarian attitudes (greater SDO), which, in turn, was predicted to be associated with less prosocial attitudes (lower harmony enhancement). Results indicated that more frequent cultural socialization and preparation for bias were linked to greater SDO for the White sample, but not for the ethnic-minority sample. Moderation results were nonsignificant for promotion of mistrust, with results indicating a positive link to SDO, regardless of racial-ethnic status. Moderated mediation analyses further revealed indirect effects of cultural socialization and preparation for bias on interpersonal attitudes through SDO for the White sample, but not for the ethnic-minority sample. Specifically, greater cultural socialization and preparation for bias each were linked to greater SDO, which, in turn, was associated with less positive perceptions of the value of maintaining interpersonal harmony for White respondents. Practical applications, including social justice implications, of the results and possibilities for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Initial Development of a Gendered-Racial Socialization Scale for African American College Women

As research exploring the racial-ethnic socialization practices of African American families continues to expand, scholars have argued for a more multidimensional approach in the measurement of racial-ethnic socialization that focuses on the influence that youths’ gender may have on the messages families provide. Although studies have used current racial-ethnic socialization measures to examine gender differences in the messages youth receive, these studies are limited in investigating intersectional messages that African American girls and women receive regarding racial and gender identities. The present preliminary study sought to address this inadequacy by developing the Gendered Racial-Ethnic Socialization Scale for Black Women (GRESS-BW), a scale that accounts for the unique messages African American young women receive regarding their intersectional identities. Utilizing a sample of 174 African American college women, Exploratory Factor Analysis indicated that the GRESS-BW consisted of 63 items with a 9-factor solution. There was strong internal consistency for the GRESS-BW factors and the total scale. GRESS-BW construct validity assessment revealed that several of the factors were significantly positively related to a racial-ethnic socialization scale. However, only two components were significantly related to a gender-role socialization measure. Clinical and research implications are discussed.

Ethnic–Racial Socialization, Social Bonds, and College Student Substance Use

ABSTRACTUsing survey data from a diverse college student sample (N = 1,728), this study tested how three types of parental ethnic-racial socialization received during the respondents’ youth were indirectly associated with substance use through their impact on the development of social bonds. Cultural socialization and preparation for bias messages indirectly decreased substance use, while promotion of mistrust messages indirectly increased substance use. By-group analyses indicated some ethnic and gender differences. Overall, the findings point to the importance of examining ethnic-racial socialization as a multidimensional construct in relation to social bonds to understand its impact on young adult substance use.

Linking Racial-Ethnic Socialization to Culture and Race-Specific Coping Among African American College Students

In addition to the use of coping strategies generally shared by all Americans, research has shown that African Americans tend to make use of culture and race-specific coping styles that distinguish them from other racial/ethnic group populations. These coping styles are important for the negotiation of multiple types of stressors. Little has been written on the antecedents of culture and race-specific coping (i.e., Africultural coping and John Henryism). This exploratory online investigation sought to determine if childhood racial-ethnic socialization (i.e., a cultural practice and protective factor) experiences predicted present self-reported culture and race-specific coping among a group of African American college students ( N = 191). Results indicated that past racial socialization messages encouraging participants to engage in positive cross-racial interactions (i.e., cross-racial relationship messages) were positively predictive of spiritual-centered and collective coping. Racial socialization messages that prescribed how participants should cope with racism were negatively associated with prolonged, active high-effort coping (i.e., John Henryism). Ethnic socialization messages emphasizing participation in African American cultural activities (i.e., African American heritage messages) positively predicted spiritual-centered, collective, and ritual-centered coping. Finally, ethnic socialization messages encouraging participants to have respect for authority figures, retain close relationships with family members, and maintain a collectivistic orientation (i.e., African American cultural values messages) were negatively predictive of John Henryism. Taken together, childhood racial-ethnic socialization experiences are an important resource for coping during college.

Confirmatory evidence for a multidimensional model of racial-ethnic socialization for transracially adoptive families.

The purpose of the current study is to test a recently established model of racial-ethnic socialization (Langrehr, 2014) among 2 samples of White transracially adoptive parents and to assess whether the proposed model functions similarly after accounting for adopted child race. Based on a modified version of the Racial Bias Preparation Scale (Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000), confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the 3-factor model (i.e., Prejudice Awareness, Racial-Ethnic Pride, and Egalitarianism) among 172 White transracially adoptive parents with Asian children (Mage = 45.72) and 140 White transracially adoptive parents with Black children (Mage = 42.62). In addition, multigroup invariance testing was used to assess whether the proposed model functioned similarly across the 2 groups of parents. Results indicate that the proposed 3-factor model demonstrated partial measurement invariance such that the subconstruct of Egalitarianism functioned similarly across groups, whereas Racial-Ethnic Pride and Prejudice Awareness were deemed noninvariant. Findings are intended to help expand the concept of racial-ethnic socialization for transracially adoptive families and address the degree to which current research on racial-ethnic socialization can be applied to different transracially adoptive families. Results are intended to highlight ways that various social-cultural dimensions of family can culminate into different socialization experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record

Development of an Asian American parental racial-ethnic socialization scale.

To develop a measure of parental racial-ethnic socialization that is appropriate for Asian American families. To test the reliability and validity of this new measure, we surveyed 575 Asian American emerging adults (49% female, 79% U.S. born). Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the results show 7 reliable subscales: maintenance of heritage culture, becoming American, awareness of discrimination, avoidance of other groups, minimization of race, promotion of equality, and cultural pluralism. Tests of factorial invariance show that overall, the subscales demonstrate, at minimum, partial metric invariance across gender, age, nativity, educational attainment, parent educational attainment, geographic region of residence, and Asian-heritage region. Thus, the relations among the subscales with other variables can be compared across these different subgroups. The subscales also correlated with ethnic identity, ethnic centrality, perceptions of discrimination, and pluralistic orientation, demonstrating construct validity. In an increasingly complex and diverse social world, our scale will be useful for gaining a better understanding of how Asian American parents socialize their children regarding issues of race, discrimination, culture, and diversity. (PsycINFO Database Record

What should young Black children know about race? Parents of preschoolers, preparation for bias, and promoting egalitarianism

This qualitative study of 26 African American parents and caregivers of preschool children sought to address gaps in the current literature by exploring how the intersection of parents’ racism experiences and social class may play a role in race-related socialization during the early years. Analysis of narrative interviews revealed that egalitarianism surfaced as the most common content of racial socialization (ethnic-racial socialization) messages. We also found that preparation for bias emerged as qualitatively different for the working- and middle-class African Americans, however, and thus, we argue that the ways in which working- and middle-class African American parents of preschoolers made sense of their experiences with racism and discrimination were different and that this shaped their preparation for bias messages differently. To provide a contrast for illustrating this argument, we detail working- and middle-class participants’ use of egalitarianism messages in relationship to their stories about racism, proposing here that parents may have been attuning to their young children’s developmental stage when deciding which messages to promote.

Racial–Ethnic Socialization and Youth Ideological Formations in an Era of Diversity and Inclusion

This article introduces a special issue of Humanity & Society which aims to expand approaches to the development of racial and ethnic minority youths’ beliefs regarding the role of race and racism in shaping U.S. society. In this introduction, I highlight the increasingly contradictory nature of our public discourse on race as signaling a unique moment in which taking stock of how racial and ethnic minority youth learn race must be linked more directly to their ideological development. I suggest that at the core of these contradictions is the ethos of individualism which is both a key principle of our national identity and a pillar that sustains the racialized character of our social system. A brief review of two parallel lines of inquiry—the micro-oriented field of race and ethnic socialization and macro-sociological perspectives on the determinants of ideological formations among American Blacks—is offered in support of a call to wed insights from these fields.

Ethnic–Racial Identity of Black Emerging Adults: The Role of Parenting and Ethnic–Racial Socialization

Ethnic–racial identity (ERI) development is important for ethnic–racial minority youth because of its association with their positive adjustment. Guided by Garcia Coll’s ecocultural framework and using survey data from 729 Black college students, we examined the associations between relationships with parents (i.e., disrespect, psychological control, nurturance, and connection), ethnic–racial socialization (ERS), and ERI in hopes of understanding ways to promote ERI formation. Findings from two multiple group models suggested that, among men, nurturance from mothers and fathers was associated with ERI and these associations were mediated by ERS. For women, connection with mothers was associated with ERI through ERS and nurturance from fathers was indirectly and positively associated with ERI through ERS. Contrary to our hypothesis, disrespect from fathers was positively associated with ERI via ERS, but only for women. Findings suggest that both ERS and the parent–child relationship are important for ERI formation among Black emerging adults.

Helping Children Navigate a Diverse World: Parents' Contributions.

We review the existing literature on how parents prepare their children to navigate an increasingly diverse world. In particular, we focus much of our attention on the ethnic-racial socialization practices and beliefs of ethnic minority and majority groups, as this area of the field is currently the most expounded. We begin by exploring the current and future demographic characteristics of the United States to better contextualize research on social justice by developmental scientists. We then review the theoretical frameworks typically used to guide this body of research. Next we examine ethnic minority parents' ethnic-racial socialization practices and discuss their implications. We then consider ethnic majority parents' ethnic-racial socialization practices. Finally we address gaps in the current literature and offer directions for future research. Taken together, this small body of literature is critical to understanding how children are socialized about diversity.

Culture Camp, Ethnic Identity, and Adoption Socialization for Korean Adoptees: A Pretest and Posttest Study.

This study explores the impact of racial-ethnic socialization on adopted South Korean children and adolescents who attended a sleepaway Korean culture camp for one week. This camp provided racial-ethnic socialization experiences via exposure to camp counselors, staff, and teachers who were Korean Americans, Korean nationals, and Korean adult adoptees, and exposure to cultural activities and discussions. Using a pretest-posttest design to control for the lack of a comparison group (McCall & Green, ), 75 Korean adoptee children and adolescents (mean age = 12.96) completed both the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS) surveys at pretest and posttest, and completed the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) at posttest. Results indicated that adoptees reported lower levels of depression at the end of camp than at the beginning of camp, but little variance could be attributed to ethnic identity at posttest. The results of this study suggest that scholars investigate the possibility that adoptee culture camps may provide an adoption socialization experience that may be more salient for adoptees than the racial-ethnic socialization that was intended. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

"American" or "Multiethnic"? Family Ethnic Identity Among Transracial Adoptive Families, Ethnic-Racial Socialization, and Children's Self-Perception.

Drawing on a model of ethnic-racial socialization (E-RS; Pinderhughes, 2013), this study examined hypothesized relations among parents' role variables (family ethnic identity and acknowledgment of cultural and racial differences), cultural socialization (CS) behaviors, and children's self-perceptions (ethnic self-label and feelings about self-label). The sample comprised 44 U.S.-based parents and their daughters ages 6 to 9 who were adopted from China. Correlation analyses revealed that parents' role variables and CS behaviors were related, and children's ethnic self-label was related to family ethnic identity and CS behaviors. Qualitative analyses point to complexities in children's ethnic identity and between family and children's ethnic identities. Together, these findings provide support for the theoretical model and suggest that although ethnic identity among international transracial adoptees (ITRAs) has similarities to that of nonadopted ethnic minority children, their internal experiences are more complex.

New Trends and Directions in Ethnic Identity Among Internationally Transracially Adopted Persons: Summary of Special Issue

The collective findings of the six articles in this special issue highlight the importance of ethnic-racial socialization and ethnic identity among international transracial adoptees (ITRAs). A multidimensional developmental phenomenon, ethnic identity intersects with other identities, notably adoptive identity. Family, peers, community, and host culture are important socialization contexts that engage transracial adoptees in transactional processes that promote ethnic identity development. New directions in research were identified, including developmental processes in navigating ethnic and other identities, similarities and differences in ethnic identity between ITRAs and immigrants, the effectiveness of interventions targeting ethnic identity in ITRAs, and the impact of discrimination on ethnic identity construction and the role of social and national contexts. Implications for policies and practices were discussed, such as pre- and postadoption supports for adoptees and parents that provide developmentally appropriate support for positive ethnic identity; training for professionals working with ITRAs and their families; and intercountry practices that promote connection with cultures of origin. Lessons about ITRAs and their ethnic identity in transaction with multiple social contexts enhance understanding of how all individuals navigate multiple identities.

The relationship between ethnic-racial socialization and adolescent substance use: An examination of social learning as a causal mechanism

ABSTRACTThe presence of parental socialization messages relevant to a child’s race/ethnicity—ethnic-racial socialization (ERS)—have been found to be an important predictor of developmental outcomes. However, scholars have recently called for greater theoretical clarification, citing the need for better understanding of how the effects of ethnic-racial socialization messages differ by dimension and what causal mechanisms underlie this relationship. Using survey data from 269 Southern California high school students, this study tested a theoretical model examining how 3 dimensions of ERS differentially relate to adolescent substance use, and how much these links are mediated by peer substance use social learning (Akers, 2009). Using structural equation modeling, we cross-sectionally and longitudinally tested the pathways between ERS and peer substance use social learning and between peer social learning and substance use. We found that 2 of the 3 dimensions of ERS were related to substance use. Cultural socialization was associated with lower substance use, and promotion of mistrust was associated with greater substance use. Both effects were indirect and mediated by peer substance use social learning. These results were replicated in a separate analysis of the largest ethnic subsample (Latinos). Ethnic-racial socialization messages that stress pride in one’s ethnic group and the development of one’s ethnic identity (cultural socialization) may be a protective factor against future substance use by inhibiting the association with substance-using peers, whereas messages that stress distrust of other ethnic groups (promotion of mistrust) may be a risk factor against future substance use by promoting the association with substance-using peers.

School Ethnic–Racial Socialization: Learning About Race and Ethnicity Among African American Students

Research has sought to understand how parents socialize their children around race and ethnicity, but few studies have considered how contexts outside the home are also important sources of socialization. In this paper we review and integrate literature on practices in school settings that have implications for ethnic–racial socialization using a framework based on Hughes et al. (Dev Psychol 42(5):747–770, 2006) review of parental socialization. The practices reviewed include cultural socialization, preparation for bias, promotion of mistrust, egalitarianism, colorblindness, and silence. Our review shows a wide range of practices in education that may influence the development of ethnic–racial identity and ethnic–racial consciousness, but more research is needed to understand the role that schools play in developing African American youth’s understanding of race and identity.