Poster #112 - Following Their Lead: Preschool Children’s Role in White Families’ Racial Socialization Practices

• In Event: Poster Session 10

Abstract

Despite increased national attention on the importance of discussing race with young children, white families remain hesitant to explicitly address race and its legacy in American society (Sullivan, 2021). Determining how we can motivate proactive discussions of race within the white home is critical to ensuring a more equitable future. Emerging research demonstrates that ethnic-racial identity development takes place across contexts, such as family, peer groups, and school settings (Sladek et al., 2022). It is possible that efforts to build young, white children’s racial literacy in one sphere–early childcare centers–may spill over, providing cross-setting support to promote more active racial socialization practices within white homes. This study aims to evaluate whether a brief preschool-based intervention encourages young children to talk to their parents about race and whether white parents use children’s initiation as teachable moments to advance racial development. Intervention. Participating preschool teachers adopted a randomized book reading curriculum to develop preschool children’s racial literacy and racial empathy, building blocks towards downstream anti-racist praxis (Hazelbaker et al., 2022). Within their classrooms, teachers read either a study book or a control book on randomized days, based on a preset reading schedule. Teachers were provided with reading guides to support their dialogic discussion of the study books with their classes.
Hypotheses. The study hypothesizes that: 1) on days when children read books about race and discuss them in school, they will be more likely to bring these topics up at home; and 2) there will be a positive association between child-initiation of conversations and the likelihood of parent-child race-conscious conversations.
Data. Data were collected between May and October 2022. At baseline and post-intervention, parents (n=20 as of Sept. 2022; estimated n=40 upon conclusion of data collection) reported their racial socialization practices (Hughes & Johnson, 2001), racial socialization self-efficacy (adapted from Jones et al., 2020), bias awareness (Perry, 2015), and internal motivation (Plant & Devine, 1998). During the study period, participating parents received daily surveys assessing: 1) children’s bids for conversation related to race (e.g. “Did your child bring up race today?”) and 2) race-conscious parent-child conversations (determined through top-down qualitative coding; Braun & Clark, 2006).
Analysis. Hypotheses will be tested using multilevel modeling to estimate changes in frequency of child initiation of conversations about race and parental responsiveness. Hierarchical logistic regression will be used to estimate the likelihood of parent-child race-conscious conversations following child initiation. Self-efficacy, bias awareness, and internal motivation will be treated as covariates. Controls for all analyses include childcare arrangement, education level, and income.
Implications. The findings of this study hold important implications regarding how to promote active, race-conscious conversations among white families and provide insight into how multiple contexts interact to inform children’s burgeoning understanding of race.

Author

• Inés Botto, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author