“So, Like, It’s All a Mix of One”: Intersecting Contexts of Adolescents’ Ethnic-Racial Socialization

• In Event: Social Contexts of Adolescents’ Ethnic-Racial Identity Development: Advancing Multiple Methodological Approaches

Abstract

Transactions between multiple interconnected and mutually reinforcing social contexts inform adolescent development (Vélez-Agosto et al., 2017), including how youth explore and come to understand their ethnic-racial identity (ERI; Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014). Adolescents learn about their ERI through family socialization practices (Hughes et al., 2009), and research has also demonstrated ethnic-racial socialization occurring in peer, school, and neighborhood settings, as well as through more macro-level societal influences (e.g., stereotypes in media; Byrd & Ahn, 2020; Way et al., 2013). Due to the complexity of capturing multiple social contexts, most research has considered these domains of ethnic-racial socialization in isolation (Hughes et al., 2016). In the current study, we adopted a consensual qualitative research (CQR) approach (Hill et al., 2005) to uncover the ways in which social contexts intersect in adolescents’ accounts of their ERI development.

U.S. adolescents (N = 98; Mage = 16.26, SD = 1.09; 55.1% female) participated in one of 14 focus groups of 3-10 students stratified by ethnic-racial group, ERI developmental status, and school grade level to share how they have learned about their ethnicity and race (Table 1). Following CQR methods, researchers of diverse ethnic-racial backgrounds (n = 4 Black, n = 3 Latinx, n = 2 Asian/Asian American, n = 4 White) independently reviewed all transcripts to identify social context domains (e.g., family, peers, etc.), participated in discussions to generate relevant codes (e.g., role of parents, discussions with peers), and coded all data according to group consensus discussions. From this process, it became clear that adolescents’ accounts of their ERI-related experiences included complex intersections of multiple contexts. Next, our team systematically reviewed all coded excerpts in which participants mentioned learning about their ERI through more than one social context (e.g., family and peers, school and peers).

Themes that resulted are summarized in Table 2. First, family ethnic-racial socialization occurs at the intersection of multiple social contexts, including with peers, in school and community-based settings, and through media use. Second, peers learn about their ERI together in multiple social contexts, including in school and community-based settings. Finally, ethnic-racial socialization is embedded within systems of racial oppression and marginalization. Within this theme, accounts notably varied between youth of color and White youth.

Findings help to illustrate the ways in which multiple social context factors are interwoven, working together to shape how adolescents see themselves regarding ethnicity and race. Prior research has generally examined these contexts separately, but adolescents’ descriptions of their experiences learning about ERI cross in and out of multiple contexts. Though research on family ethnic-racial socialization is robust, this study points to ways that the family context intersects with other proximal social influences in adolescents’ daily lives to support exploration about cultural heritage. Aside from cultural socialization, results also suggest that adolescents learn about their ERI by receiving and trying to make sense of often harmful messages about ethnicity-race that are generated by the broader societal and historical contexts in which all youth are embedded.

Authors

• Michael R Sladek, University of Oklahoma
  Presenting Author

• Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer L. Hardesty, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gladys María Aguilar, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• David Bates, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elisa Gomez, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Connie Hur, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shandra M. Jones, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hua Luo, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Megan Satterthwaite-Freiman, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Michael A Vázquez, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author