Poster #33 - Experiences of the Sociopolitical Climate Among Black Parents: A Mixed Methods Approach

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Introduction:
Black Americans’ experiences with racism, discrimination, and oppression (e.g., slavery, segregation, police brutality) inform their views of the sociopolitical climate (Hope et al., 2015). Parents may discuss these historical events alongside the sociopolitical climate with their children to prepare them for their own experiences with oppression (Minniear & Soliz, 2019). Research has documented the effects of the sociopolitical climate on Black children across many ages, but much of this research focuses on effects for adolescents and adults (Albright & Hurd, 2020; Dismukes et al., 2018; Roche et al., 2018). The current study employs a mixed methods analysis of sociopolitical climate with a sample of Black American parents and their pre-adolescent children.

Hypotheses:
We propose three hypotheses: (1) parents report fewer effects of the sociopolitical climate than children report for themselves; (2) as the effects of the sociopolitical climate reported by parents increase, so will the effects of the sociopolitical climate for youth; and (3) more reported effects of the sociopolitical climate will be associated with higher depressive symptoms among both parents and children.

Method:
Participants in this sample are part of a larger, longitudinal research project with Black and Latinx parent-child dyads. Following a convergent parallel mixed methods design (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011), quantitative and qualitative data were collected concurrently and analyzed separately. The quantitative sample is composed of the 80 Black parents (88% female) and children (M=11.01, SD=0.31; 42.5% female) who participated in the 5th grade wave of data collection. A nested sampling procedure was used to invite a subsample of parents (n = 50) to partake in a semi-structured qualitative interview. Of those who agreed to participate, 10 self-identified as Black and one as Afro Hispanic. A modified version of the Political Climate Scale (Roosa et al., 2008) developed by Roche and colleagues (2018) was used with parents and children. The Child Depression Index (Kovacs, 2011) and The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (Radloff, 1977) were used to assess for symptoms of depression among children and parents, respectively. Child gender and family poverty were included as covariates.

Results:
On average, parents reported slightly more effects for children (M = 1.75, SD = .82) than children reported for themselves (M = 1.47, SD = .82), t(74), 1.74, p < .10, 95% CI [-.60, .04]. Meanwhile, children on average reported fewer effects for parents (M = 1.45, SD = .83) than parents reported for themselves (M = 2.14, SD = 1.48), t(76) 3.61, p < .01, 95% CI [.30, 1.05]. Unexpectedly, bivariate correlations revealed that parents’ and children’s reports of political climate were unassociated with one another (r = .17, p = .14). Finally, multivariate least squares regression analyses indicated that children’s depressive symptoms were positively associated with parents’ depressive symptoms and child gender, and parents’ depressive symptoms were negatively associated with family poverty. Results of quantitative analyses can be found in Table 1. Results of qualitative analyses can be found in Figure 1.

Authors

• LaRen Morton, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author

• Kimberly R. Osborne, Arizona State University

• Leslie Anderson, University of Southern Mississippi

• Margaret Tresch Owen, University of Texas at Dallas

• Margaret O'Brien Caughy, University of Georgia