More Than a Sponge: Latinx Youth’s Active Role in Discussions of Discrimination

• In Event: Beyond the Survey: Innovative Methods for Measuring and Analyzing Ethnic Racial Socialization

Abstract

A growing literature illuminates the role of ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) as a way in which Latinx families can mitigate the negative impacts of discrimination on youth. To date, most ERS research has focused on how parents’ direct messages about ethnic-racial identity to youth, but less is known about how children actively participate in such conversations. Situated in the Integrative Model of Minority Youth Development (Garcia Coll et al., 1996), this study examined how youth actively participate in race-based conversations and thus contribute to their ethnic-racial socialization. Latinx mother-child dyadic conversations were coded, examined, and analyzed using a sequential analysis framework to understand, at a micro-level, how mothers respond once a child labels an event as discriminatory or racially unjust.

This study utilizes data from a larger longitudinal study on school readiness and the development of self-regulation in a sample of low-income African American and Latinx children (Caughy & Owen, 2015). A subset of 26 Latinx mother-child dyads of the larger sample completed the Racial Socialization Observation Task (RSOT), a novel observational measure to assess ERS between parents and children while discussing a hypothetical vignette (Smith-Bynum et al., 2016), were included in this study. Latinx mother-child dyads listened to a racially charged vignette in which a store clerk states that "illegals are taking advantage of this country and don't bother to learn English." The dyad then discusses the vignette for five minutes, with the goal of the vignette to elicit a discussion of ERS. Transcription data of mother-child dyads conversations about the vignette were coded for (1) neutral statements, (2) agreement statements, (3) disagreement statements, (4) recognition or preparation for bias statements, (5) scaffolding statements, and (6) cultural socialization and pride affirmation statements. Sequential analyses were completed using the Sequential Data Interchange Standard (SDIS) and the Generalized Sequential Querier (GSEQ; Bakeman & Quera, 2011) to assess the transitional probability of a mother's responses to a child's labeling of recognition or preparation for bias statements. Odds ratios were computed to assess the magnitude given child codes and mother's responses.

The sequential analysis resulted in six separate transitional probability calculations for mothers' responses after a child labeled an event as discriminatory or racially unjust. Results of the transitional probabilities of maternal responses were as follows: probability of maternal scaffolding response was 41%, probability of maternal preparation for bias response was 30%, probability of maternal agreement response was 20%, probability of maternal disagreement response was 5%, and the probability of mothers responding with neutral responses and cultural pride responses was 2%, respectively. Odds ratios results indicated that given child recognition or preparation for bias statements, mothers' statements of agreement were the most frequent responses with a moderate effect (OR = 2.04).

Results indicate that when youth label an event as discriminatory, they most commonly elicit scaffolding and agreement messages from their mothers. Such messages may help validate youth's thoughts and experiences during potentially stressful conversations. Future directions for understanding how youth participate in conversations on race and ERS will be discussed in this presentation.

Authors

• Dominique Luisa La Barrie, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author

• Daisy Gallegos

• Anne E Shaffer, University of Georgia

• Margaret O'Brien Caughy, University of Georgia