Poster #73 - Examining Racial Discrimination, Internalized Racism, and Racial-Ethnic Socialization among Asian American Parents

• In Event: Poster Session 15

Abstract

Asian American parents utilize racial-ethnic socialization (RES) to teach children about race, culture, and ways to cope with discrimination (Hughes et al., 2006). While parents’ experience of discrimination drives RES messages (Hughes et al., 2006), there is still a scarce understanding of how internalized racism (i.e., the process in which individuals from racial minority groups come to accept and believe the negative views and stereotypes about their racial group; Pyke, 2010) impact the relation between discrimination and RES. Employing the frameworks of the Integrative Model (Garcia Coll et al., 1996), path analyses were tested to examine (a) the contribution of racial discrimination and internalized racism in predicting RES domains and (b) the moderating effect of internalized racism in the racial discrimination-RES link among 121 Asian American parents (M = 41.79, range= 26-65 years). It was hypothesized that parents’ experiences of racial discrimination would be positively associated with messages on becoming American, awareness of discrimination, avoidance of outgroups, and cultural pluralism; and negatively related to messages on maintenance of heritage culture, minimization of race, and promotion of equality (H1); internalized racism would be positively associated with messages of becoming American, awareness of discrimination, avoidance of outgroups, and minimization of race, but negatively related to maintenance of heritage culture, cultural pluralism, and promotion of equality (H2); internalized racism would moderate the associations between experiences of discrimination and domains of RES, such that the associations between discrimination and becoming American, awareness of discrimination, and avoidance of outgroups would be stronger with higher levels of internalized racism (H3); internalized racism would moderate the associations between discrimination and domains of RES, such that the associations between maintenance of heritage culture, minimization of race, cultural pluralism, and promotion of equality would be weaker with lower levels of internalized racism.
Results showed that racial discrimination was negatively associated with internalized racism (β = -.22, p < .05), but not with specific domains of RES; however, internalized racism was significantly associated with RES domains, including minimization of race (β = .25, p < .05), cultural pluralism (β = -.33, p < .01), and promotion of equality (β = -.39, p < .001). Significant interactions emerged between racial discrimination and internalized racism, such that parents who reported high levels of racial discrimination and high levels of internalized racism were less likely to convey messages that minimized or denied racism (+ 1 SD; β = -.30, p < .05). No other significant interactions emerged for other RES domains. The findings demonstrate how racial discrimination- in conjunction with internalized racism- may play a pertinent role in shaping messages of RES and that internalized racism may be reproduced and perpetuated through RES (Trieu & Lee, 2018). Moreover, the recent social movements (e.g., Black Lives Matter) and the pandemic-related anti-Asian hate crimes may have brought issues of racism to the forefront for parents in the study. Continuing to study the different aspects that shape Asian American parental RES can aid the development of interventions that prepare parents effectively support positive youth outcomes.

Authors

• Sei Eun Kim, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• Emily Hunt, Teachers College Columbia Univeresity

• William Tsai, New York University

• Cindy Y. Huang, Columbia University