“The Talk” Tells the Story: A Qualitative Investigation of Parents’ Racial Socialization Competency With Black Adolescents

Journal of Adolescent Research · 2022 · 19 citations

• Sociology
• Psychology
• Developmental psychology

Black youth overwhelmingly experience racial discrimination (RD). Racial socialization (RS), or racial communication between families, mitigates RD stress by expanding youth coping strategies. Although most Black parents currently discuss racial content with their children, less is known about this RS quality. The burgeoning construct of RS competency, or the skills, confidence, and stress of RS transmission, explores these emotion-focused approaches. Drawing on the racial encounter coping appraisal and socialization theory (RECAST), the current study seeks to depict RS competency through qualitative methods. Through deductive analysis, we examined in-depth interviews from nine parents of 10- to 14-year-olds enrolled in a RS intervention with familial conversations on RD in an urban mid-Atlantic city. Overall, findings support what has been found in quantitative studies of RS competency, particularly that subfactors are related yet unique, parent’s prior experiences impact current practices, and parental concerns for children drive practices and competency. This study also unearthed findings of processes occurring in light of a contentious context for Black adolescents. To our knowledge, this is the first study to qualitatively investigate these emotional and cognitive processes inherent in RS competency, which has future implications for family interventions to disrupt the psychological impact racism exacts on Black adolescents and families.

They raised me to resist: Examining the sociopolitical pathways between parental racial socialization and Black youth's racial justice action

Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology · 2022 · 17 citations

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Social psychology

Abstract In a sample of 500 self‐identified Black adolescents from across the United States, this study investigated the pathways between youth's experiences of parental racial socialization (RS) and their sociopolitical development. Findings from structural equation modelling reveal that RS messages and actions were positively associated with youth's awareness of racial inequality (critical reflection) and confidence and motivation in addressing racism (critical agency). Further, there were direct and indirect associations between RS and multiple forms of racial justice actions (interpersonal, political/communal, and online). Racial barriers messages were directly positively associated with political/communal and indirectly positively associated with interpersonal and online action, while cultural socialization actions were directly positively associated with all three forms of action. These findings support theoretical contentions that RS messages and actions may be powerful tools for cultivating Black youth's understanding and capacity to transform racially unjust systems. Further, parents' behaviours to racially socialize their children may be more impactful than their verbal messages in cultivating multiple forms of racial justice action. Finally, recommendations for future research and practice related to Black youth's consciousness and activism are presented. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement .

A Critical Race Theory of Psychology as Praxis: Proposing and Utilizing Principles of PsyCrit

Journal of Adolescent Research · 2022 · 21 citations

• Sociology
• Social Science
• Psychology

Historically, psychological science has contributed to maintaining the hegemony of white normativity and a fallacious belief in objective science that speaks to one singular truth about race. Due to a widespread unfamiliarity with critical theories and research methods in the field, novel approaches to psychological scientific inquiry are warranted to support scholars in pursuing racially-just empirical inquiries with socially-just implications. This manuscript aims to (1) introduce an evolution from critical race theory in psychology to a set of principles to guide research praxis: PsyCrit and (2) demonstrate its utility through use in an exemplar qualitative study. Qualitative coding analysis of semi-structured interviews with four Black mothers and one Black father ( n = 5) participating in the Engaging, Managing, and Bonding through Race intervention was conducted to model the use of PsyCrit in practice and deepen our understanding of parent factors in Black families. This manuscript unpacks four aspects of the exemplar study utilizing four of the seven tenets of PsyCrit. The depth of analysis provided by the framework suggests that these principles may serve in guiding psychological researchers toward more nuanced investigations, especially as they relate to issues of race or racism.

Interrupting the Pathway From Discrimination to Black Adolescents’ Psychosocial Outcomes: The Contribution of Parental Racial Worries and Racial Socialization Competency

Child Development · 2021 · 48 citations

• Psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Clinical psychology

= 42.9) of adolescents (ages 10-18) were assessed to investigate how parental worries and racial socialization competency (i.e., confidence, skills, and stress) contribute to the association between parental discrimination experiences and their adolescents' psychosocial problems. Mediation analyses indicated that the total direct models with discrimination, worries, and problems had good fit, and that the addition of worry mediated the discrimination-problems association. Furthermore, racial socialization competency moderated the association between worry and problems, wherein greater competency was associated with less impact of worry on problems. Findings illuminate potential intervention targets for buffering discrimination's influence on adolescents' psychosocial functioning.