“These Infinite Conversations”: How White Parents and their Same-Race or Transracial Adopted Adolescents Discuss Race

• In Event: Parenting and Adolescents' Social Identities

Abstract

Adolescence is formative for racial and adoptive identity development (Grotevant, 2008). As suggested by Hughes and colleagues (2016), to fully understand adolescents’ racial knowledge, scholars must focus on the context of racial socialization (RS). RS has largely been studied amongst Black families, specifically parental efforts to prepare their adolescent for bias in a systematically racist United States (U.S.; Abaied & Perry, 2021). Awareness has also been raised among white parents to discuss racial privilege with their white children (Cox et al., 2022). Scholarship has yet to focus on the content of RS conversations with white parents, or what white parents and their adolescents aim to achieve through RS discussions.

Little is also known about how white parents, diverse in family formation and identity (e.g., adoptive families, same-gender parents), engage in RS. One study of heterosexual families showed no significant difference in frequency of race conversations between same-race white and Black transracial adopted adolescents (from their perspective; Hamilton et al., 2015). The present study sheds light on dyadic or triadic perspectives of RS amongst adoptive families with white parents, which has been explored little in qualitative work (Minniear & Soliz, 2019). Among diverse family structures, our purpose was to qualitatively explore how white adoptive parents and adolescents participate in RS. Further, we aimed to see if themes varied by adoption type (e.g., same-race or transracial adoption).

The current sample consists of 8 families with 8 adolescents (Mage = 16.88 years) and 13 parents (Mage = 54.15), comprising 5 triads and 3 dyads. Three represent transracial adoptions. Of the 8 adolescents, 3 have two moms; 2 have two dads (the others have a mom and dad; see Table 1). All families were formed using private infant adoptions in the U.S. Participants were interviewed via Zoom or telephone as part of a larger longitudinal study (N=106 initial families; [REDACTED]). The research team has inductively coded transcribed interviews utilizing thematic analysis; the analysis is data-driven (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Four themes have been identified (for full description and exemplar quotes, see Table 2). Theme 1 (distal events) represents how both parents and adolescents utilize events (e.g., racial protests in 2020) to prompt RS. Theme 2 (similar perspectives on RS) accounts for similarities between parent and adolescent perspectives on RS. Theme 3 (different perspectives on RS) represents the key differences (e.g., frequency) between adolescent and parent perspectives, seen across same-race and transracial adoptions. Theme 4 (different aims for RS) addresses communication differences between adolescents and their parents within dyads and triads.

These results reiterate how imperative multi-perspective approaches are to RS research (Hughes et al., 2016), as adolescents and parents report different aims and frequencies of RS. Findings can inform our understanding of how white adoptive parents and their adolescents participate in RS, with an aim of supporting effective RS among white adoptive parents. Adoption agencies can utilize findings when creating educational programs to educate potential adoptive white parents about RS.

Authors

• Emily Paige Lapidus, University of Kentucky
  Presenting Author

• Simon Boone, University of Kentucky

• Rachel H. Farr, University of Kentucky