Date of Award

1-1-2011

Document Type

Campus Access Thesis

Department

Psychology

Sub-Department

Clinical-Community Psychology

First Advisor

Shauna M Cooper

Abstract

Studies have indicated that both academic and racial socialization are independently associated with African American student outcomes. Few investigations, however, have utilized a person-centered approach to explore whether these dimensions work in concert. The current investigation examines two dimensions of parental socialization practices: academic socialization (parent school involvement and academic encouragement) and racial socialization (racial pride, racial barrier, and egalitarian messages) and their relationship to demographic variables (age, gender, and SES) and academic outcomes (academic engagement and perception of academic ability) for African American adolescents. Participants were one-hundred forty African American adolescents (M = 12.4; SD = 1.13; 56% female). A Latent Class Analysis identified that a 6-class solution fit the data most optimally (AIC=1592.53; BIC=1710.20; BLRT=769.76, p=.013; Entropy=.87). Identified clusters were: 1) high academic/moderate racial socializers; 2) high non race-specific socializers; 3) high racial barrier socializers; 4) low racial and academic socializers; 5) moderate academic and racial socializers; and 6) high racial/moderate academic socializers (Figure 3.1). Although there was no demographic (age, gender, SES) variation in cluster membership, there was partial support for cluster differences in academic engagement and perception of academic ability. Overall, findings suggest the importance of examining the ways in which academic and racial socialization work in concert, and their association with adolescents' academic outcomes.

Rights

© 2011, Isha Walwina Metzger

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