Family Racial Socialization Research Articles

White Families' Communications About and Around Race: Conversations Between white Adolescents and Their Mothers.

Though there is substantial research on racial socialization in families of color, there is less on such socialization in white families. To investigate racial socialization in white families, the current study analyzed mixed-methods data from 46 mother-adolescent dyads. Though white parents and their adolescent children largely claimed to not talk about race, they in fact communicated about and around race through various strategies that in effect, maintained white privilege and failed to challenge systems of racial oppression. Very few families in our sample discussed racial discrimination or white privilege, and fewer rooted both at the systems level. Our results highlight situations that prompt conversations about race as well as the ways white families talk about and around race and white privilege.

Buffering Effects of Racial Discrimination on School Engagement: The Role of Culturally Responsive Teachers and Caring School Police.

ABSTRACTBACKGROUNDUrban black adolescents' wellbeing in the early high school years can be negatively impacted by exposure to racial discrimination. These impacts may be buffered by supportive relationships with adults at school. We considered both the protective and promotive effects of culturally responsive teachers and caring school police on school engagement for students exposed to racial discrimination across settings.METHODThis study leveraged baseline student report from a sample of urban, predominantly black high school students with elevated teacher‐rated levels of aggressive behavior (N = 397 9th graders; 91.2% black; 50.4% male; J = 10 schools). Using a path model with full‐information maximum likelihood estimation, we examined the associations of racial discrimination, teacher cultural responsiveness, and school police caring in relation to school engagement and school disconnection, adjusting for covariates, including family racial socialization.RESULTSFrequency of racial discrimination was significantly associated with lower school engagement and greater school disconnection. Teacher cultural responsiveness was significantly, favorably associated with all outcomes. Police caring had no significant direct associations; however, there were moderation effects. When police caring was below average, increased racial discrimination was associated with significantly poorer attitudes toward school.CONCLUSIONSFindings suggested that students' perceptions of school police caring may buffer links between racial discrimination experiences and school disconnection. Moreover, students who perceive that their teachers are culturally responsive may feel more engaged at school. Interventions to promote teachers' and school police officers' cultural responsiveness and caring may improve engagement among at‐risk urban youth who experience racial discrimination.

RECASTing racial stress and trauma: Theorizing the healing potential of racial socialization in families.

For youth and adults of color, prolonged exposure to racial discrimination may result in debilitating psychological, behavioral, and health outcomes. Research has suggested that race-based traumatic stress can manifest from direct and vicarious discriminatory racial encounters (DREs) that impact individuals during and after an event. To help their children prepare for and prevent the deleterious consequences of DREs, many parents of color utilize racial socialization (RS), or communication about racialized experiences. Although RS research has illuminated associations between RS and youth well-being indicators (i.e., psychosocial, physiological, academic, and identity-related), findings have mainly focused on RS frequency and endorsement in retrospective accounts and not on how RS is transmitted and received, used during in-the-moment encounters, or applied to reduce racial stress and trauma through clinical processes. This article explores how systemic and interpersonal DREs require literate, active, and bidirectional RS to repair from race-based traumatic stress often overlooked by traditional stress and coping models and clinical services. A novel theory (Racial Encounter Coping Appraisal and Socialization Theory [RECAST]), wherein RS moderates the relationship between racial stress and self-efficacy in a path to coping and well-being, is advanced. Greater RS competency is proposed as achievable through intentional and mindful practice. Given heightened awareness to DREs plaguing youth, better understanding of how RS processes and skills development can help youth and parents heal from the effects of past, current, and future racial trauma is important. A description of proposed measures and RECAST's use within trauma-focused clinical practices and interventions for family led healing is also provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Racial Socialization in Cross-Racial Families

The purpose of this study was to investigate how multiracial people of African descent experience racism in schools and to understand how their parents or guardians prepare them to cope with incidents of racism in school. Through qualitative in-depth interviews with multiracial and transracially adopted adults of African descent, this study seeks to raise awareness regarding the complexity of family racial dynamics and how family racial socialization processes affect students’ ability to navigate racism. Findings suggested that racial socialization processes varied by the racial composition of the family, that is, families in which there was at least one Black parent or guardian present tended to more openly address issues of race and racism in comparison with families in which there was no Black parent or guardian present. Findings from this study hold theoretical implications for how racial socialization is conceptualized and practical implications for programs and policies designed to support families raising children of African descent.

Jim Crow’s Daughters Different Social Class-Different Experience With Racism

African American women share the common ground of surviving in a racially stratified society. Nonetheless, the diversity of their experiences emerges. This article contrasts the lived experiences of two elderly African American daughters of the Jim Crow South. Commonly shared social markers (race, gender, and historical and regional contexts) are held in contrast to their notably different social classes. Salient features of their diverse experiences corroborate the supposition that although all African American women encounter racism, social-class differences influence how racism is experienced. Family racial socialization pathways are conceptualized as reliance on personal resources versus reliance on personal defiance.

Body Size and Social Self-Image among Adolescent African American Girls: The Moderating Influence of Family Racial Socialization.

Social psychologists have amassed a large body of work demonstrating that overweight African American adolescent girls have generally positive self-images, particularly when compared with overweight females from other racial and ethnic groups. Some scholars have proposed that elements of African American social experience may contribute to the maintenance of these positive self-views. In this paper, we evaluate these arguments using data drawn from a panel study of socio-economically diverse African American adolescent girls living in Iowa and Georgia. We analyze the relationship between body size and social self-image over three waves of data, starting when the girls were 10 years of age and concluding when they were approximately 14. We find that heavier respondents hold less positive social self-images but also find that being raised in a family that practices racial socialization moderates this relationship.

The impact of family functioning on family racial socialization processes.

This longitudinal study evaluated the relationship between family functioning and family racial socialization processes in a clinical sample of African American youth referred for drug abuse treatment. Participants were 77 African American adolescents and their parents. Results showed that participants assigned to structural ecosystems therapy experienced a greater increase in family racial socialization processes during treatment than participants assigned to the treatment as usual in community settings condition. Participants in structural ecosystems therapy also demonstrated a greater increase in family functioning than participants in community settings condition, and this improvement in family functioning mediated the relationship between treatment condition and family racial socialization processes. Research and clinical implications are discussed.

Mixed messages: multiracial identities in the "color-blind" era

Mixed Messages: Doing Race in the Color-Blind Era - D.L. Brunsma. Shifting Color Lines. Defining Race: Comparative Perspectives - F.J. Davis. Black, Honorary White, White: The Future of Race in the United States? - E. Bonilla-Silva and D.E. Embrick. Racial Justice in a Black/Nonblack Society - G. Yancey. Carving Out a Middle Ground: The Case of Hawai'i - J. Moniz and P. Spickard. New Racial Identities, Old Arguments: Continuing Biological Reification - R. Spencer. Color Blindness: An Obstacle to Racial Justice? - C.A. Gallagher. Racism, Whitespace, and the Rise of the Neo-Mulattos - H.D. Horton. Manipulating Identities. Race, Multiraciality, and the Neoconservative Agenda - G.R. Daniel and J.M. Castaneda-Liles. White Separatists Define Multiracial - A.L. Ferber. Defining Racism to Achieve Goals: The and Black Reparations Movements - J.E. Foster. Selling Mixedness: Marketing with Identities - K.M. DaCosta. Socialization in Families. It All Starts at Home: Racial Socialization in Families - K.A. Rockquemore et al. Racial Logics and (Trans)Racial Identities: A View from Britain - F.W. Twine. Black and White: Family Opposition to Becoming - E.C. Childs. Dilemmas of Identity. Negotiating Racial Identity in Social Interactions - R.L. Lewis and K. Bell. Black/White Friendships in a Color-Blind Society - K. Korgen and E. O'Brien. Black and Latino: Dominican Americans Negotiate Racial Worlds - B. Bailey. Finding a Home: Housing the Color Line - H. Dalmage. Confronting Racism in the Therapist's Office - K. Owusu-Bempah. Culture and Identity in Mixed-Race Women's Lives - D. Storrs.

Family Racial Socialization and Ecological Competence: Longitudinal Assessments of African-American Transracial Adoptees

Ecological Competence was assessed longitudinally in 88 African-American transracial adoptees (TRAs). Relations were examined among measures of Family Racial Socialization, Africentric, and Eurocentric Reference Group Orientations, transracial adoption stressors, and their effects on psychological adjustment. Longitudinal path analyses assessed the relations among these constructs. Path analytic models indicated that in childhood (Time 1) Family Racial Socialization predicted neither Africentric Reference Group Orientation (ARGO) nor Eurocentric Reference Group Orientation (ERGO); by adolescence (Time 2), Family Racial Socialization predicted ARGO but not ERGO. Both ARGO and ERGO contributed significantly to adjustment. Change models indicated that adjustment declined significantly over the 10 years. There were multiple determinants of this decline. TRAs experienced difficulty becoming ecologically competent in both ARGO and ERGO. They displayed greater ERGO than ARGO. Discriminant function analyses based on the independent variables yielded hit rates of 71% at Time 1 and over 84% at Time 2 for classifying the TRAs as adjusted or maladjusted.

Family Racial Socialization and Ecological Competence: Longitudinal Assessments of African-American Transracial Adoptees

Family Racial Socialization and Ecological Competence: Longitudinal Assessments of African-American Transracial Adoptees