Poster #73 - Ethnic-Racial Socialization, Identity, and Self-Esteem: Analyzing a Structural Model for African American and Latino Students

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

Introduction:
Recent theoretical models of ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) have demonstrated links between types of ERS (cultural socialization – ethnic/racial pride messages, preparation for bias - racial barrier messages), and adolescent academic and behavioral outcomes via ethnic-racial identity and self-esteem (Hughes et al., 2009; Rodriguez et al., 2009). Although these findings may expand knowledge on the ways in which ERS may directly and indirectly relate to adolescent outcomes, similar paths linking ERS to collegiate emerging adult outcomes are less explored. The current study addressed that gap by examining these relations among African American (AA) and Latino college students (N = 145) attending a predominately white institution (PWI).
Our work is guided by theory on ERS suggesting that within ethnic-racial minority families, parents confer messages that instill a positive self-identify and shield children against the possible hostilities they may face when navigating the dominant culture (Brown et al, 2006; Hughes et al., 2006). Thus, ERS is a salient process of family socialization within ethnic-racial minority families. We argue the need to replicate previous works on college students. Emerging adulthood theory suggests that this developmental period is characterized by increased autonomy, cognitive reasoning, and greater interracial contact (Arnett, 2006). AA and Latino college students at PWIs may confront race-related issues without immediate counsel from parents. Therefore, having the ability to recall parental communications about race might be more important when navigating collegiate environments (White-Johnson, 2015).
Methods/Results: Data came from a weekly diary study of 145 AA (N = 91) and Latino (N = 54; 90% U.S. born) undergraduate students who attended a Midwestern university (Mage= 20.84, SD = 1.15). Participants completed a 1.5-hour online assessment, which included measures of ERS (Hughes et al., 2001), ethnic-racial identity (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2004), self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1979), and academic and intellectual development perceptions (Pascarella et al., 1980).
The hypothesized model (Figure1) was examined using MPlus (Muthén & Muthén, 2017) and indicated good overall model fit [χ2 = 542, df = 388, p <.001, RMSEA=.05; 90% CI (.042, .063), CFI/TLI = .94/.93, SRMR=.07]. As hypothesized, preparation for bias and cultural socialization were associated with academic and intellectual development. Racial-ethnic identity was directly linked to academic and intellectual development and preparation for bias, and mediated the relation between those variables. Racial-ethnic identity was not significantly related to cultural socialization. Main and mediational effects of self-esteem were non-significant.
Discussion: Studying the impact of ERS on college students is important for demonstrating the life-span perspective of ERS, which may provide valuable information about how historically marginalized students apply parental messages about race/ethnicity toward academic and intellectual development.
The moderating effect of group membership was not examined given the lack of power. However, we plan to discuss findings in terms of lived experiences of AA and Latino students. We recognize that there are shared and distinct aspects of ERS that vary by racial-ethnic group.

Authors

• Steven Berkley, University of Missouri-Columbia
  Presenting Author

• Antoinette M. Landor, University of Missouri
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katharine H. Zeiders, University of Arizona
  Non-Presenting Author