Date of Award

Spring 2023

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Meeta Banerjee

Abstract

Ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) is a multidimensional concept that can be defined as the transmission of attitudes, beliefs and messages about ethnic-racial group membership (Hughes et al., 2006). To counteract the negative effects of discriminatory experiences, ethnic minority parents proactively impart race-salient messages to their youth. Sociodemographic variables such as regional location has been shown to affect the frequency of ERS messages as well (Thornton et al., 1990). The current study examines ERS practices in 436 African American, Hispanic/Latinx and Asian American parents. This study also explores the concept of intergenerational transmission, in which parents pass on to their own children messages they received as children. Participants reported on their ERS practices, memories of ERS from their own parents, and their ethnic-racial identity (ERI). Results indicated that there were no differences on certain ERS practices between ethnic groups. However, findings show that African American parents reported higher use of specific ERS messages. Furthermore, regional location was found to be a predictor of the frequency of ERS messages. Lastly, ethnic racial identity fully mediated the relationship for certain ERS messages and practices. This study builds on the ERS literature indicating there are a myriad of factors that influence the frequency of ERS messages in ethnic minority families.

Rights

© 2023, Ryan Chantz Houston-Dial

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