About this session

Saturday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Examining Racial-Ethnic, Emotional, and Mental Health Socialization Processes in Black Families

Black parents face the unique challenge of preparing their children to navigate the realities of racism, a burden that can significantly heighten the risk of mental health struggles for Black youth (Cave et al., 2020; Iruka et al., 2022). Socialization processes, including racial-ethnic, emotional, and mental health socialization, play a critical role in helping Black youth cope with these challenges (Lozada et al., 2022; Morris et al., 2007; Neblett et al., 2008). Given that Black families have historically been underrepresented in developmental science, there is an urgent need to better understand their experiences. This symposium presents three papers drawing from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives to examine specific socialization practices used by Black parents and their impact on the mental health of Black youth.

The first paper examines associations between parents’ racial trauma symptoms and their preschool-aged children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and explores whether their emotion and racial socialization practices moderates this association. The second paper focuses on a novel observational assessment of racial-emotion socialization during which dyads view and discuss a video clip about Black history. Findings offer examples of how Black parents support emotional expression and empathic responding in young children. The third paper uses interviews with Black emerging adults to explore their reflections on their parents’ mental health socialization practices and the contextual factors that shaped them.

Taken together, these papers offer key insights into parenting and developmental processes that may shape identity and well-being of Black youth.

Paper #1
Title	Emotion and Racial Socialization as Moderators of Parental Racial Trauma and Preschoolers’ Internalizing/Externalizing Behaviors
Presenting author	Jill Smokoski, Stony Brook University, United States

Paper #2
Title	Initial Development of an Observed Measure of Racial Emotion Socialization
Presenting author	Dr. Angel Sia Dunbar, Ph.D., University of Maryland, United States

Paper #3
Title	A Retrospective Examination of Mental Health and Emotion Socialization Practices among Black Families
Presenting author	Ariana Rivens, PhD, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, United States

View all paper details

Session chair
Dr. Ariana Rivens, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, United States

Discussant
Daniel Cooper, University of South Carolina, United States

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