Ethnic-Racial Socialization and Psychological Health: Assessing the Mediating Roles of Ethnic Identity and Ethnic Identity Verification

• In Event: 1284 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 13. Student Racial/Ethnic Identities

Abstract

Parental socialization messages about a child’s ethnicity and race (ethnic-racial socialization) have typically been viewed as an integral component of a child’s healthy psychosocial adjustment. However, past research has not always borne this out. Recent work has provided theoretical clarification of this relationship by distinguishing between different types of socialization messages and articulating the ethnic identity processes mediating this relationship, with most of this prior work focusing on the strength of one’s ethnic identity. To date, no known work has examined identity verification (Burke and Stets 2009) as a possible causal mechanism. Drawing on a diverse college student sample (N = 1188), we tested how three types of ethnic-racial socialization received during the respondents’ youth (cultural socialization, preparation for bias, and promotion of mistrust) influenced psychological health, and the extent to which ethnic identity and ethnic identity verification mediated each of these relationships. We found that cultural socialization and promotion of mistrust promoted positive and negative psychological health, respectively, and both of these relationships were mediated by ethnic identity and ethnic identity verification. Tests of invariance found these results to be generalizable by ethnic-racial group, gender, and immigrant status. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings for the ethnic-racial socialization literature and the study of identities.

Authors

• Matthew Grindal, University of Idaho

• Melanie Kushida, University of California-Riverside