Racial Learning in Childhood and White American Young Adults' Ethnic and Racial Identities

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Abstract

The strategies used by parents to socialize their children about ethnicity and race (ethnic-racial socialization; ERS) have been studied extensively in the developmental literature. However, most of this work has focused on families of color. We build on this prior work by examining ERS in white American families. Drawing on retrospective survey data from a national sample of white American young adults, we identified an eight-dimension scale of ERS consisting of the following strategies: cultural socialization, preparation for bias, promotion of mistrust, egalitarianism, mainstream socialization, silence about race, exposure to diversity, and anti-racism socialization. We then examined the dimensions most strongly associated with one’s ethnic identity and racial identity in young adulthood. We found that respondents reported low-to-moderate frequency levels of ERS. In addition, cultural socialization, preparation for bias, and promotion of mistrust were related to greater levels of both ethnic identity and racial identity. Exposure to diversity was associated with lower levels of racial identity, and anti-racism socialization was associated with lower levels of ethnic identity. We discuss the implications of these findings within the broader ethnic-racial socialization literature.

Authors

• Matthew Grindal, University of Idaho

• Tanya Nieri, University of California-Riverside