Parental Ethnic-Racial Socialization Messages Given to Multiracial College Students: A Latent Profile Analysis

• In Event: 3-120 - Examining the Role of Parents in the Racial Development of Multiracial Youth

Integrative Statement

Introduction. While in the last 30 years, there has been an increase in research on ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) messages (Priest et al., 2014), especially among African Americans (Hughes et al., 2006), there is a dearth of literature on ERS in multiracial populations. Furthermore, the little work that has been done looking at ERS in this growing population has been largely qualitative (Rauktis et al., 2016; Stone & Dolbin-MacNab, 2017). Research has suggested that ERS processes operate differently in monoracial and multiracial populations (Nuru & Soliz, 2014; Rollins & Hunter, 2013), meriting further quantitative study. To help fill these gaps in the literature, this study uses latent profile analysis (LPA) to answer the following questions: (1) What patterns of ERS messages do parents give to their multiracial children? (2) How are these patterns related to ethnic identity and multiracial identity integration (MII)?
Method. Using a sample of 59 part-White multiracial college students, LPA was run looking at parents’ ERS messages about White and non-White racial groups (Hughes, 2003; Juang et al., 2016). Cultural socialization messages about both groups (i.e., tradition, history), preparation for bias (i.e. anticipating bias from others because either minority group membership or whiteness), mistrust (i.e. only trusting whites or only trusting one’s monoracial minority group), and egalitarian and pluralism messages were measured. Chi-square tests were then conducted to examine profile differences in identity exploration, resolution, affirmation (EIS; Umana-Taylor et al., 2004) and multiracial identity integration, measured by racial distance and racial conflict (MII; Cheng & Lee, 2009). We hypothesized that our LPA would produce high frequency socialization, low frequency socialization, and egalitarian (high in pluralism and promotion of equality) profiles, and that greater ERS messages about non-white groups would be associated with greater levels of ethnic identity and lower distance and conflict.
Results. Our LPA revealed 3 profiles: minority socialized (N=15), or those who were socialized as minority group members, negative messages (N=11), those high in bias and mistrust messages, and low frequency (N=33), who did not receive frequent ERS messages (see Table 2 for fit indices). Standardized scores by profile are depicted in Figure 2. Profiles had an equal proportion of non-white mothers and fathers. While profiles did not differ in either identity affirmation or in racial distance as predicted, the minority socialized profile reported more exploration (χ2=14.351,p=.000) and resolution (χ2=6.292,p=.043) than the negative messages profile, as well as greater racial conflict (χ2=8.131,p=.004) and exploration (χ2=36.88,p=.000) than the low frequency profile.
Overall, our findings support previous literature asserting that multiracial individuals receive little ERS (Rollins & Hunter, 2013) or are socialized primarily as monoracial, minority group members (Jackson et al., 2017). Additionally, our findings provide preliminary evidence suggesting that parents give different patterns of ERS messages, and that these patterns are differentially associated with ethnic identity exploration, resolution, and identity conflict in multiracial youth. Overall, future work should continue to take a person-centered approach to examining ERS in multiracial youth and should identify factors that may moderate the association between ERS and identity in this growing population.

Authors

• Noah Keita N'youngou Christophe, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Presenting Author

• Gabriela Livas Stein, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author