Between Worlds: Black Mothers’ Experiences with Discrimination and their Positive Racial Identity have Opposing Effects on their Reactions to Children’s Emotions

• In Event: Context Matters: Expanding Understanding of Child Emotion Regulation within Family Interactions and Conditions of Risk

Abstract

Theory suggests that due to their experiences with discrimination and awareness of the implications that discrimination may have on their children, Black parents may be more likely to suppress their children’s expressions of negative emotions to protect children from racial bias (Dunbar et al., 2017; Labelle, 2018). However, these studies have relied on comparisons of Black and White mothers’ responses to children’s emotions, without explicitly measuring Black mothers’ experiences with discrimination or incorporating other culturally relevant factors such as racial identity.

We examined whether Black mothers’ experiences with discrimination predicted their beliefs about social consequences of children’s emotional expressions, and subsequently, their attempts to suppress children’s negative emotions. Given evidence that Black families value the free expression of all emotions as a cultural norm (Lozada et al., 2022), we also examined whether Black mothers’ feeling that their race was central to their identity (centrality) would counteract these effects.

Methods:

87 Black mothers reported on their experiences with discrimination (via The Inventory of Race Related Stress-Brief Version; Utsey, 1999), their beliefs about social consequences for their children’s displays of negative emotions (Beliefs about Emotion Consequences scale; Nelson et al., (2012), and their expressive encouragement, minimizing reactions (i.e., “stop being a baby”), and punitive reactions (i.e., sending child to their room) to their children’s negative emotions (The Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale; Fabes et al., 2002) across 3 waves from preschool to 1st grade. Mothers also reported on their racial centrality at the kindergarten wave (Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity scale; Sellers et al., 1997).

Results and Discussion:

As seen in Figure 1., results of the structural equation model indicated significant indirect effects of mothers’ racial discrimination experiences on their expressive encouragement, minimizing responses, and punitive responses to their children’s negative emotions via their beliefs about negative social consequences for expressing negative emotions. There were no significant direct or total effects of discrimination on responses to children’s emotions, suggesting that mothers’ personal experiences with discrimination predicted their lower expressive encouragement and higher punitive and minimizing responses to their children’s negative emotions only when these discriminatory experiences led to their beliefs that their children might experience similar discriminatory experiences when they express emotions. However, mothers’ centrality had a counteractive effect on minimizing responses such that when mothers felt that their race was central to their identity, they were less likely to minimize their children’s negative emotions. That centrality predicted mothers’ lower likelihood of minimizing children’s negative emotions but had no impact on their expressive encouragement or punitive responses suggests that not minimizing children’s emotions might be closely linked to Black cultural values of free expression of emotions. Whereas the decision to either encourage or punish children’s outward expressions of emotions may have less to do with how much mothers intrinsically value negative emotions and more related to their desire to prevent children from experiencing discrimination due to others’ biases interpretations of their children’s emotions.

Authors

• Angel Sia Dunbar, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author

• Stephanie Irby Coard, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Esther M. Leerkes, UNC Greensboro

• Andrew Supple, University of North Carolina at Greensboro