Observed Mother-adolescent Communication about Racial Issues and Adolescent Mental Health in African American Families

• In Event: 1-128 - Examining the Relation of Ethnic Racial Socialization and Racial Discrimination in Ethnic Minorities

Integrative Statement

A substantial amount of scholarship has examined the effects of racial socialization on African American youth without consideration of other aspects of the parent-child relationship. This research applies a process-oriented theoretical approach to racial socialization which asserts that racial socialization is dyadic, both verbal and nonverbal, and spontaneous (Hughes et al., 2006). We argue that parents and adolescents co-create communication about racial issues in the context of the parent-child relationship (Smith-Bynum et al., 2016) and posit that specific communication patterns are linked to adolescent mental health. Using data from a new observational measure of racial socialization that captures real-time communication about racial issues, we examined two exploratory questions. First, can a typology of African American mother-adolescent observed communication about racial issues be identified? Second, are specific types of observed dyadic communication about racial discrimination associated with adolescents’ reports of their internalizing and externalizing behaviors?
African American mother-adolescent dyads (N = 109) completed a 5-minute video-recorded discussion task assessing several aspects of dyadic communication about hypothetical racial dilemmas.
Measures: Mother and adolescent appraisal of racial dilemmas (i.e., affirmation of the existence of racial bias), maternal advocacy on behalf of adolescents, maternal supportiveness of adolescents’ efforts to solve racial dilemmas, adolescents’ solutions to the racial dilemmas, maternal suggestions to adolescents for coping with racial dilemmas; Maternal and adolescent warmth during the discussion; Youth Self Report Internalizing and Externalizing scales.
We used MPlus version 7.4 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2015) and the 3-step Latent Profile Analysis approach (Vermunt, 2010) to identify patterns of observed racial socialization and relations to youth outcomes. Fit criteria and theory suggested that the 3 profile model was the best fit (see Table 1). We labeled these profiles No-nonsense Advocates, Warm Advocates, and Low Engaged (See Figure 1).
A MANOVA test of the profile variables indicated significant group differences on the profile variables, F (8) = 77.43, p < .001. When comparing the Warm Advocates to the No-nonsense Advocates, the Warm-Advocates were higher on maternal warmth, adolescent warmth, maternal supportiveness, and maternal and adolescent bias affirmation. The two groups did not differ significantly on maternal suggestions, parent as advocate, or adolescent solutions. The Low Engaged group was significantly lower than both of the advocate groups on almost variables. There was no difference between Low Engaged and No-nonsense Advocates on adolescent bias affirmation.
The overall equality test of means using the 3-step procedure indicated significant group differences on internalizing problems, X2(3) = 9.07, p < .05, and externalizing problems, X2(3) = 6.05, p < .05. Specific comparative tests across groups indicated that youth in the No-nonsense Advocates group displayed significantly higher internalizing problems X2(3) = 8.91, p < .01, and externalizing problems, X2(3) = 6.03, p < .05, than youth in the Warm Advocates group. However, youth in the Low Engaged group did not differ significantly from youth in either of the advocate groups, likely due to issues of statistical power. These exploratory results suggest that family communication patterns about racial issues do covary with African American adolescent’ mental health.

Authors

• Mia A Smith-Bynum, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author

• Angel S. Dunbar, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lydia HaRim Ahn, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Erica E Coates, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marisa G. Franco, Georgia State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Khris-Ann Small, University of Conneticut
  Non-Presenting Author