Ethnic-Racial Socialization in Multiple Contexts in Adolescence: Families, Peers & Schools

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) has been operationalized as the transmission of beliefs, values and practices surrounding race (Hughes et al., 2006). Although family ERS is positively associated with youths’ psychosocial outcomes, more work is needed to further our understanding of ERS across contexts and developmental periods. This symposium focuses on ERS in family, peer, and school contexts among early through late adolescents.
Socialization has been studied with regards to youth’s psychosocial functioning, but few have examined how ERS relates to race in youths’ friendships. Study one examines how parent ERS can play a role in friend/peer selection in early adolescence. Additionally, although ERS has been examined in relation to youth’s perception of the content of messages, less is known about parents’ competency in providing those messages. The second study utilizes a latent profile approach to explore both content and competency among African American parents’ ERS practices. Finally, it ERS may be an important factor for buffering the effects of racial discrimination on academic outcomes. While studies have examined how current discrimination is associated with academic outcomes, less is known how past discrimination in school impacts African American youth’s college outcomes and how different dimensions of ERS can buffer the effects.
Both qualitative and quantitative methods were utilized in these papers to understand the impact of socialization within these various populations. This group of papers adds to the literature on ERS in African American populations by discussing crucial areas that are in need of further investigation.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Meeta Banerjee, University of South Carolina

Discussant

• Dawn Paula Witherspoon, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Individual Presentations

• Family Ethnic-Racial Socialization and Peer Group Diversity in Early Adolescence - Presenting Author: Joanna Lee Williams, Rutgers University - New Brunswick; Non-Presenting Author: Haley E. Johnson, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Miray Seward, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Andrea Negrete, Wesleyan University

• Exploring Associations in Racial Discrimination, Racial Socialization & Academic Outcomes in African American College Students - Presenting Author: Meeta Banerjee, University of South Carolina

• Black Parents’ Racial Socialization Content & Competency: Patterns, Predictors, and Psychological Wellbeing Associations - Presenting Author: Shawn Christopher Tracey Jones, Virginia Commonwealth University; Non-Presenting Author: Riana Elyse Anderson, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor; Non-Presenting Author: Howard C Stevenson, University of Pennsylvania