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Chinese American Parents’ Racial-Ethnic Socialization Profiles during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Fri, April 9, 1:10 to 2:40pm EDT (1:10 to 2:40pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled xenophobia against Asian Americans with negative mental health consequences (Cheah et al., 2020). Parents’ racial-ethnic socialization (RES), which refers to their transmission of information regarding race and ethnicity to their children, can be an important resource or risk factor for minority youth (Huguley et al., 2019), particularly during this heightened period of racism. This study aimed to: (a) examine Chinese American parents’ RES profiles during the COVID-19 pandemic using a person-centered approach; (b) compare child outcomes for parents in different RES profiles; (c) assess the associations between parents’ RES profiles and contextual factors and parental characteristics using gradient boosted classification tree (BCT) machine learning techniques.

Chinese American parents (N=507; 79% mothers; Mage=44.67) with 4- to 18-year-old children (47% female; Mage=11.81) reported on nine RES strategies during COVID-19 (e.g., awareness of discrimination; Figure 1), demographic and parental characteristics (e.g., ethnic identity, mental health), experiences of racial discrimination before and during COVID-19, perceptions of Sinophobia due to COVID-19, and their children’s academic performance and social-emotional and behavioral difficulties.

Three RES profiles were identified (Figure 1). Profile 1 (63%) parents reported low levels of all RES dimensions except for heritage culture maintenance and cultural pluralism and were labelled High-Heritage-and-Pluralism-Only; Profile 2 (12%) parents reported high levels of all RES dimensions and were labelled High-Nonselective; and Profile 3 parents (25%) prepared children for both cross-ethnic-racial interactions and maintenance of heritage race-ethnicity, and were labeled Multicultural. Children of High-Nonselective parents had poorer academic performance and more socio-emotional and behavioral difficulties compared to children of High-Heritage-and-Pluralism-Only and Multicultural parents; children of parents in the latter two RES profiles did not differ on outcomes.

The BCT model revealed that three discrimination-related variables had the highest variable importance in predicting parents’ RES profiles (Figure 2). Parents were more likely to be classified as Multicultural and less likely to be classified as High-Heritage-and-Pluralism-Only when they reported higher levels of perceived COVID-19 Sinophobia and racial discrimination both before and during-COVID-19. However, the likelihood of being classified as High-Nonselective only increased when parents reported higher levels of racial discrimination and perceived Sinophobia during COVID-19 but not before.

Heritage maintenance and cultural pluralism RES were beneficial for ethnic minority children’s development (Wang et al., 2020). However, RES practices that discouraged inter-ethnic interactions and promoted mistrust of outgroups were detrimental to children’s adjustment (Atkin et al., 2019), despite their appearance of protecting children from the likelihood of being racially-targeted during COVID-19. Chinese American parents’ perceived racial discrimination and social rejection of their racial-ethnic group accounted most strongly for their RES practices. Importantly, parents’ experiences of more racial discrimination and perceived Sinophobia during COVID-19 (but not before COVID-19) contributed to the profile with a greater likelihood of socializing children to avoid ethnic-racial outgroups members and hide their own race-ethnic heritage. Thus, these parents seem to be less prepared for racial discrimination experiences and RES during COVID-19. These findings will be discussed considering both the challenges to and opportunities for Chinese American families’ positive development during the pandemic and beyond.

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