White Parent and Child Attitudes towards Asians: Awareness of Discrimination as a Mediator

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

The current sociopolitical climate regarding COVID-19 has brought to light the prevalence of anti-Asian racism and xenophobia (Campbell, 2020). Research has demonstrated that racial discriminatory experiences impact the mental and physical health of Asian American adolescents (e.g., Huynh, 2012). However, there is a dearth of scholarship on what may be contributing to these anti-Asian sentiments from White children.

Given that parents are often the first socialization agents, examining parental attitudes and behaviors may elucidate contributing factors to their children’s attitudes. Children may indirectly learn their parents’ attitudes towards Asians through modeling and observation (Bandura, 1977). Additionally, it is possible that the absorption of parental attitudes may be explained by direct behaviors such as racial socialization, or the messages that parents send to their children about race. In this study, we focused on parental messages that help children become aware of discrimination towards others, given that these messages demonstrate parents’ active efforts to raise antiracist children (Hagerman, 2017). Thus, the present study examines whether 1) parental attitudes towards Asian individuals and awareness of discrimination messages impact children’s attitudes towards Asians, and 2) whether the link between parental and children’s attitudes towards Asians can be explained by awareness of discrimination messages. In addition, we examined both children and parental reports of parental attitudes given previous discrepancies.

Method
Participants included 70 White parents (91.4% female, Mage = 45.27, SD= 9.06) and majority White children (80% White; 62.9% female; Mage = 10.31, SD = 2.80) from the Midwest. Parents completed a survey about current racial socialization (adapted from Pahlke et al., 2012) and explicit racial attitudes (Wilcox, Sigelman, & Cook, 1989), and children completed the same explicit racial attitudes scale for both their own attitudes and their perception of their parents’ attitudes.

Results
A path-analysis via Mplus indicated that children’s perceptions of their parents’ attitudes (B = 0.29, p = 0.03) and parent report of awareness of discrimination messages (B = 0.34, p = 0.007) were related to children’s racial attitudes. However, parental report of their own racial attitudes was not associated with children’s attitudes (B = -0.13, p = 0.31). There was also a positive relationship between children’s report of parental attitudes and parental awareness of discrimination messages (B = 0.44, p < .001).
Awareness of discrimination messages mediated the link between children’s perceptions of their parents’ attitudes and child attitudes (B = 0.15, p = 0.03). Specifically, parents’ attitudes towards Asians was positively linked with the frequency of awareness of discrimination messages, and this in turn was associated with more positive child racial attitudes towards Asians. There was however no indirect effect between parent reports of racial attitudes, awareness of discrimination messages, and child racial attitudes (B = -0.05, p = 0.31). Findings demonstrate children’s perceptions of parents’ beliefs are more important than parents’ actual beliefs, and in turn, parents’ actual behaviors via racial socialization matter more for children’s racial attitudes.

Authors

• Lydia Harim Ahn, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Virginia W Huynh, California State University - Northridge
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cari Gillen-O'Neel, Macalester College
  Non-Presenting Author