Mother- and Father-Child Relationships, Parental Racial Socialization and Black Children’s Mental Health

• In Event: 3-067 - Parenting, Racial Socialization, Emotion Regulation, & Psychosocial Outcomes in African American Youth

Integrative Statement

Experiencing racial discrimination, a lived reality for many Black youth, can have detrimental effects on their mental health (Pachter et al., 2018). Parents can reduce these effects, however, through racial socialization – the transmission of race-related values, beliefs, and messages (Neblett et al., 2008). Yet, we know little about whether the effects of specific types of racial socialization messages (i.e., cultural socialization, preparation for bias, and promotion of mistrust) on youth’s mental health depend on the quality of relationships children have with their mothers and fathers. This is important because children may be more receptive to racial socialization messages when they have supportive parents that they can value, trust, and confide in (Darling & Steinberg, 2006). Thus, we replicated and extended Cooper and McLoyd’s (2011) findings by examining whether supportive mother- and father-child relationships enhance the effects of parental racial socialization on Black youth’s depressive symptomology.

Method. The current study used data from 173 Black youth (M = 12.57 years; 53% girls) and their mothers (M = 39.94 years) and fathers (M = 41.53 years). Mothers and fathers independently reported on their racial socialization practices and to what extent they are supportive when their child has a problem or needs advice (e.g., child can share his/her feelings with me). Youth reported on their racial discrimination experiences (e.g., treated rudely or disrespectfully because of your race) and depressive symptoms (e.g., sad, crying, trouble sleeping).
Analysis. We conducted hierarchical linear regressions using Mplus. First, we examined the main effects of racial socialization practices and parent-child relationships on child depressive symptoms, controlling for child gender, child age, and child racial discrimination. Second, we added 2-way interactions between mother/father racial socialization messages and mother/father-child relationships for each racial socialization dimension. Finally, we examined gender as a moderator using 3-way interactions. Significant interactions were graphed at ±1SD.
Results (Table 1). Child racial discrimination was positively associated with child depressive symptomology, whereas, mothers’ cultural socialization was negatively associated with child depressive symptomology.

Father-child relationships were significant moderators of the association between father’s racial socialization and child depressive symptomology. Specifically, fathers’ cultural socialization was ineffective for promoting positive child mental health among children who did not have a supportive relationship with their father (Figure 1A). In addition, fathers’ preparation for bias messages were significantly related to fewer child depressive symptoms when there was a supportive father-child relationship; however, high levels of preparation for bias was ineffective for promoting positive child mental health when fathers were unsupportive (Figure 1B). Finally, mother-child relationships was also a significant moderator, such that mothers’ promotion of mistrust was associated with more child depressive symptoms when there was a supportive mother-child relationship (Figure 1C). No significant effects for child gender emerged.

Overall, these findings demonstrate that the resilience-promoting capabilities of racial socialization practices vary by parent gender and depend on the quality of parent-child relationships. These findings add to the racial socialization literature and inform culturally relevant parenting interventions by highlighting under what conditions racial socialization practices are influential for Black youth’s mental health.

Authors

• Sharde McNeil Smith, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Presenting Author

• Hafeezah Branch, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author