The Impact of White American Parents’ Racial Socialization Methods on Children’s Attitude Change

• In Event: Ethnicity Salience and Ethnic-Racial Socialization in Different Social Contexts

Abstract

Although many White parents believe that racism continues to exist in American society and that children should learn about it, the majority of White parents avoid discussing race and racism with their White children. Furthermore, when White parents do engage in these conversations, they tend to take a colorblind (e.g., avoiding explicitly mentioning race or racism), rather than a color conscious (e.g., explicitly naming race and racism) approach. Prior research shows that White American parents’ avoidance of these conversations and their usage of colorblind language is linked to their belief that talking to their children about race will make them racist. However, research indicates that colorblind socialization actually predicts greater racial bias and that color conscious socialization leads to decreased racial bias among White children. Thus, we designed an intervention to facilitate color conscious parent-children conversations about racism in a laboratory study. Furthermore, we examined how parents’ verbal messages during this intervention impacted children’s implicit racial attitudes.

We recruited 87 White parent-child dyads to participate. Children were between the ages of 8 and 12. Children’s implicit racial attitudes were measured using an implicit association task, which children completed before and after the intervention. The intervention was a semi-structured conversation, in which White parents and children watched a series of 10 short videos, which depicted a cartoon video of a White child and a Black child interacting. The interactions were either neutral (e.g., the children sat on the bus together), or depicted subtle racism (e.g., the White child is uncomfortable around the Black child), or blatant racism (e.g., the White child thinks that all Black children are stupid and calls the Black child stupid). After each video, parents and children were instructed to discuss a series of prompts that asked them to consider the White child’s behavior and the Black child’s feelings.

Parents’ verbal responses were coded based on three themes: 1) color conscious socialization, external attributions, and 3) racial ignorance. Color conscious socialization occurred when participants pointed out prejudice or made connections with societal racism. External attributions were coded when parents blamed the White child’s behavior on adults, media, or on the Black child. Racial ignorance occurred when parents gave the White child the benefit of the doubt, redirected the conversation to avoid discussing race, or used colorblind language. We found that parents’ color conscious language predicted children’s implicit attitude change (B = -0.06, SE = 0.03, p = .022), such that children whose parents used more color conscious language had a greater decline in implicit anti-Black attitudes. External attributions were also associated with implicit attitude change (B = 0.16, SE = 0.05, p = .003), such that children whose parents made more external attributions showed a smaller decline in implicit anti-Black attitudes. Racial ignorance was not significantly associated with children’s implicit attitude change. In sum, we evidence that an intervention facilitating parent-child discussions can change White children’s racial attitudes, and that parent-child discussions about race are especially helpful when parents use more color conscious language and fewer external attributions.

Authors

• Deborah Wu
  Presenting Author

• Sylvia Perry, Northwestern University