Racial Socialization Processes Research Articles

Reflections of a Black Male Counseling Psychology Doctoral Student: Lessons Learned from APA Division 45 Commentary and the Role of Social Justice for Counseling Psychologists

The tragic killing of Trayvon Martin has received nationwide media coverage, even garnering commentary by the U.S. President. The attention is unique in the sense that young Black men in Martin’s age group have consistently been the most likely to be killed as a result of homicide and often ignored by the media. A personal reflection is provided to give context to the racial socialization process as well as the internal struggles being faced by some Black men in the United States. In addition, postings have been shared from the American Psychological Association Division 45 electronic mailing list capturing the social justice activism process in pursuit of justice for Trayvon Martin. The results of this article call for deeper analysis of the cause of racially motivated killings.

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.

Multicultural Issues in Graduate Advising Relationships

Although advisor—advisee relationships are ubiquitous to graduate training, there is relatively little scholarship bearing on advising relationships. Not surprisingly, the intersection between multiculturalism and advising relationships is also sparse. Given the potential increase in the numbers of People of Color entering graduate training due to the changing demographics in the United States and the influence of advising relationships on advisees’ personal and professional development, it is imperative to address the role of culture in the advising relationship—in this article, we will address race, sex, and sexual orientation. Hence, in this article, we address the potential impact of racial and cultural socialization processes on the advising relationship and organizational contexts.

Conclusions and Directions for Future Research Concerning Racial Socialization

The overall findings incorporated in these exploratory studies suggest that parental racial socialization processes are an important factor in: determining favorable outcomes related to youth and parental mental health, and influencing important decisions; such as youth avoiding violent confrontations. A strong sense of ethnicity appears to be a strong protective factor for the mental health and behavioral outcomes of these inner city youth and their families. These multiple effects of parental racial socialization processes suggest that this variable is an important feature in the day to day lives of African American families residing in low income inner-city environments; therefore, the examination of parental racial socialization processes could be included in future studies on resilience in minority populations. Data also revealed that several parental racial socialization processes constructs explained family use of child mental health services. Those providing services to urban adolescents need to be knowledgeable about the effects that culturally and contextually specific variables have on youth residing in urban environments. Therefore, it is important that future research studies on child mental health service use for urban families of color includes culturally specific factors such as parental racial socialization processes. Furthermore, although this study focused specifically on low-income urban youth and families, future studies must investigate the influence of parental racial socialization processes on youth and family mental health outcomes across urban, suburban, and rural, as well as economic strata. This type of research could provide invaluable information on the process of how parental racial socialization processes influence youth and family outcomes across a broad spectrum.

Racial Primes and Black Misandry on Historically White Campuses: Toward Critical Race Accountability in Educational Administration

Background: Racial primes are an outgrowth and inculcation of a well-structured, highly developed, racially conservative, “race-neutral” or “color-blind” racial socialization process in which children learn race-specific stereotypes about African Americans and other race/ethnic groups. As they get older, they continue to receive—both involuntary and voluntary—corroborating messages of anti-Black stereotypes from adults, friends, games, folklore, music, television, popular media, and the hidden curriculum. A result of this belief system is Black misandry. Black misandry refers to an exaggerated pathological aversion toward Black men created and reinforced in societal, institutional, and individual ideologies, practices, and behaviors. Findings: Through the use of focus group interview data from African American male students at four universities, it reveals that potent Black misandric beliefs exist in both academic and social spaces in the collegiate environment. Conclusions: Using critical race theory as a framework, the counterstory in this article provides an interpretation of how racially primed Black misandric beliefs influence the collegiate racial climate and how educational administrator might respond.

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.

Understanding African American Youth HIV Knowledge

Summary This article presents the results of a study examining correlates of urban African American youth HIV knowledge. The influence of family level factors (e.g., family communication, parental AIDS knowledge and myths regarding HIV transmission, along with family composition and family income) are examined. In addition, the current study explores the influence of racial socialization processes, specifically the influence of religious/spiritual coping, extended family caring, cultural pride reinforcement and racial awareness teaching (Stevenson, 1994; 1995; 1997) on youth HIV knowledge. Multivariate analyses revealed a significant association between youth HIV knowledge and being reared in a single parent home. Further, in every model, controlling for all types of racial socialization processes, family communication was significantly associated with youth HIV knowledge. Implications are drawn regarding the development of culturally and contextually specific HIV prevention programming for African American youth and their families.

Inner-city African American parental involvement in children's schooling: racial socialization and social support from the parent community.

Parents (n = 161) and teachers (n = 18) from an urban elementary school serving primarily African American children completed questionnaires regarding racial socialization, social support, and involvement in activities that support youth educational achievement at home and school. Parental reports of racism awareness, and contact with school staff were significantly correlated with parent reports of at-home involvement and at-school involvement. Parent reports of social support from the parent community were significantly related to at-home involvement only. Relative to teacher reports, parents reported more formal contacts with school staff, and higher levels of racism awareness, religiosity, and African American cultural pride. Teachers and parents agreed on school climate and parental levels of at-home and at-school involvement. The results suggest that racial socialization processes are related to parent involvement in children's schooling and that increased efforts are needed to bridge a cultural gap between parents and teachers in inner-city communities.

Correlates in Children's Experiences of Parents' Racial Socialization Behaviors

This study examined racial socialization processes among 94 African American parents of third‐, fourth‐, and fifth‐grade children as they were predicted by children's ethnic identity exploration and unfair treatment as well as by parents' ethnic identity and discrimination experiences. Findings indicated that children's ethnic identity exploration and parents' perceptions that their children had been treated unfairly by an adult because of their race were both significantly associated with the frequency of messages to children regarding discrimination (Preparation for Bias). Parents' perceptions of children's unfair treatment from an adult and children's perceptions that they had been treated unfairly by peers were significantly associated with parents' cautions and warnings to children about intergroup relations (Promotion of Mistrust). Moreover, the influence of parents' perceptions on Promotion of Mistrust were especially pronounced when children also reported unfair treatment from adults. Children's identity exploration and unfair treatment were not associated with parents' emphasis on ethnic pride, heritage, and diversity (Cultural Socialization/Pluralism). Thus, findings suggest that parental factors are most central in the racial socialization messages that children receive. However, children's perceptions of discrimination and information seeking regarding their own history appear to have some influence on parental messages about race.

Relationship of Adolescent Perceptions of Racial Socialization to Racial Identity

The reklaonship between racial sociadization attitudes and racial identity stages is the subject of this article, with racial socialization hypothesized as one key variable to link the literatures in childhood racial awareness ad young adult racial identity. A teenage sample was selected to compare measures of racial socialization and racial identity processes. The Scale of Racial Socilizationfor Adolescents and the 50-item Racial Identity Attitude Scale (RIAS) based on Nigrescence theory were administered to 287 African American adolescents between the ages of 14 and 15 years. A principal components analysis was conducted on the RIAS to assess its appropriateness with a younger adolescent population. The factor analytic procedure yielded a three-factor solution with moderately reliablefactors. Thefactors corresponded to the Nigrescence stages of preencounter, immersion, and internalization. Results indicate that specific factors of racial socialization differentially predict all of the racial identiy stages for females and the preencounter and internalization identity stages for males. Findings also suggest that racial socialization is multidimensional, and implications for integrating it with revised multidimensional conceptualizations of racial identity are raised.