Parental Ethnic-Racial Socialization Moderating Closeness and Conflict on Latino-American Adolescents' Emotional Functioning

• In Event: 3-114 - Family Dynamics and Adolescents’ Socioemotional Adjustment Across Cultural Contexts

Integrative Statement

Parental ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) is the parental message concerning children’s race and ethnicity in order to foster knowledge and appreciation for the cultural heritage, prepare children for possible encounters of societal racism, stereotypes, and discrimination, and/or promote wariness of other ethnic groups (Grindal & Nieri, 2015; Hughes et al., 2006). This practice is most frequently used by parents of adolescents and is associated with positive psychosocial outcomes (Else-Quest & Morse, 2015) including higher self-esteem, fewer internalizing symptoms (Hughes et al., 2006), and higher academic functioning (Hughes, Witherspoon, Rivas-Drake, & West-Bey, 2009). However, much of ERS research has been conducted with African American families and few has investigated how different types of ERS among Latino American families are related to other parenting variables, such as parent-adolescent closeness and conflict, and how parental ERS may interact with parent-adolescent closeness and conflict to predict Latino American adolescents’ emotional functioning over time. This study seeks to fill the gap in the literature by using longitudinal design to shed light on these complex relationships over time.

This study utilized surveys from 213 Latino 10th graders (M age= 15.05, SD=0.41, 59.6% female) from southern California over two time points (6 months apart) to examine the relations between three types of parental ERS (preparation for bias, cultural socialization, promotion of mistrust), family functioning (closeness, conflict), and Latino adolescents’ socioemotional well-being (negative emotions, self-worth). It also investigated whether the three types of parental ERS moderate the relations between family functioning and adolescents’ outcomes. The majority of adolescents were born in the U.S. (n = 180, 96.7%).

Each type of ERS: preparation for bias (Model 1a, b), cultural socialization (Model 2a, b), and promotion of mistrust (Model 3a, b), was tested separately with parent-adolescent closeness and conflict on two youth outcomes: self-worth and negative emotions (Table 1). For the main effects, higher parent-adolescent conflict predicted higher negative emotions and lower self-worth. Cultural socialization predicted higher self-worth, but not negative emotions.

Each type of ERS moderated the relation between family functioning and self-worth, but not negative emotions. Specifically, high preparation for bias buffered the relation between conflict and self-worth. At high levels of preparation for bias (1SD+), the effect of conflict on self-worth was not significantly different from zero, b = -.05, p > .05. However, at low levels of preparation for bias, the relation between conflict and self-worth was negative, b = -.54, p < .001. High levels of cultural socialization also enhances the positive effect of closeness on self-worth, b = .35, p < .05 (Figure 1). High promotion of mistrust enhanced the positive effect of closeness on self-worth, b = .45, p < .01, and buffered the negative effect of conflict on self-worth, b = -.71, p < .001. Results demonstrate the unique influences of different types of parental ERS on the relations between Latino family functioning and adolescents’ socioemotional outcomes. Findings highlight the importance of incorporating parenting variables that may be unique to ethnic minority families.

Authors

• K. Anh Do, Asian American Studies Program, University of Maryland, College Park
  Presenting Author

• Cixin Wang, Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education,University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tanya Nieri, University of California, Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jia Li Liu, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author