Poster #209 - Measuring Parental Socialization of Social Class: A Preliminary Investigation

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Background: Subjective social class, or one’s perception of their position in social hierarchies, is related to a myriad of physical and psychosocial outcomes (e.g., Goodman et al., 2003; Adler & Stewart, 2007). While sociological theory supports the formation of social class identity in children as young as 12 years old, psychology has focused less on the mechanisms underlying this process (Goodman et al., 2007; Rauscher, Friedline, & Banerjee, 2017). Based on current knowledge regarding social class and other identity-related constructs (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity), it is posited that parental socialization may be a key contributor to the formation of subjective social class in early childhood (see Jones, Loiselle, & Highlander, 2018 for a review).
Methods: To address this hypothesis, this study built upon measurement theory to examine the feasibility, reliability, and validity of a novel measure, the Parental Social Class Socialization Measure (PSCSM), which resulted from a review of various racial and ethnic socialization scales (e.g., Hughes & Chen, 1997; Pahlke, Bigler, & Suizzo, 2012; Bentley-Edwards & Stevenson, 2016). The PSCSM was administered to parents (N = 365) of children (3 to 7 years old) via Amazon MTURK to preliminarily explore possible early parental class socialization messages. The resulting sample was generally a nationally representative sample in terms of race (20% minority) and socioeconomic status (24% low income). Results: Exploratory factor and correlational analyses were employed. Results supported the reliability of the PSCSM (α = 0.97) as well as four subscales: Preparation for Bias and Discrimination (α = 0.97), History of Other Groups (α = 0.94), Egalitarianism (α = 0.93), and Minimization of Discrimination (α = 0.73). Based on current theory, validity was preliminarily examined via correlations between various parental characteristics and PSCSM subscales. Parental experiences of class-based discrimination (i.e., Microagression Scale; Anderson et al., 2015) were positively correlated with parental reports of socialization across factors, including Preparation for Bias and Discrimination, r= .28, p < .01, History of Other Groups, r = .22, p < .01, and Minimization of Discrimination, r = .33, p < .01, but there was no significant relationship with messages of egalitarianism, r = .78, p = .14. Parents’ subjective social status (i.e., MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status; Adler & Stewart, 2007) was not significantly related to their socialization practices except in the case of Minimization of Discrimination, r = .13, p < .05, such that parents were more likely to socialize children when they believed they held a higher class status in their community.
Conclusions: Similar to findings with other aspects of socialization, results suggest that parental socialization of social class is a multidimensional process that occurs in early childhood and is linked to parental characteristics. Specifically, parents who feel alternatively marginalized or elite based on their class status are more likely to emphasize class differences rather than messages of equality when discussing social class with their children. While this is an important first step, future work must address young children’s perceptions of class socialization and its potential impact on psychosocial functioning.

Authors

• April Highlander, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Alexis Georgeson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Raelyn Loiselle, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Patrick Turner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Chloe Zachary, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Deborah Jones, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author