About this session

Friday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Using multiple methodologies to understand the complexity of U.S. parents’ approaches to racial socialization

Over the past few decades, developmental scholars have studied the content and correlates of family racial socialization (RS) (Hughes et al., 2006; Simon, 2020) and more recently have examined related parent psychological factors such as RS competency (e.g., Anderson et al., 2021; Christophe et al., 2022). As the literature grows, our conceptualization of and methodologies used to study RS must follow suit to deepen the field’s knowledge. This symposium collectively demonstrates how multiple quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches can yield deeper insights into the complexity of RS strategies and motivations among diverse U.S. parents. The first paper takes a detailed look at RS practices and mindsets, analyzing semi-structured interviews among a small sample of White parents and revealing four key themes categorizing their approaches. The second, mixed-methods paper draws on a nationally representative sample of U.S. parents to understand the motivations underlying parents’ levels of openness to engaging in RS and examines associations with parent racial identity, sense of urgency, and frequency of RS. The third paper uses a person-centered approach, employing latent growth profiles and drawing on adolescents’ perspectives, to examine patterns of parent RS over time among Black, Latine, Chinese, and White families. Taken together, these papers highlight how methodologies allowing for co-occurrence of multiple RS strategies and motivations, consideration of changing RS over time, and consideration of family racial/ethnic identity may yield more nuanced understandings of parent approaches to RS. Discussion will emphasize implications for efforts to promote ongoing, healthy RS across childhood.

Paper #1
Title	Between the lines: Uncovering white parents’ approaches to discussing race with their children
Presenting author	Paige Bost, University of Michigan, USA

Paper #2
Title	A mixed-methods study of openness to racial socialization among U.S. parents
Presenting author	Dr. Christina L. Rucinski, Ph.D., EmbraceRace, United States

Paper #3
Title	Person-centered understanding of racial socialization: Latent profiles among Black, Latine, Chinese, and White adolescents
Presenting author	Elizabeth Cox, New York University, United States

View all paper details

Session chair
Dr. Diane L. Hughes, Ph.D. | New York University | United States, New York University, United States

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