Parental racial and cultural socialization and the racial and ethnic self -concept of African -American children

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between parental racial and cultural socialization behaviors and children's racial and ethnic self-concept and racial awareness. Participants were 42 African American parents and their preadolescent children (ages 9–13 years) who live in predominantly white or multicultural communities. Two secondary relationships were also investigated: (1) the relationship between children's racial and ethnic self-concept, racial awareness, and general aspects of self concept, and (2) the relationship between parental socialization behaviors and attitudes and parental racial identity and acculturation level. Results demonstrate that children whose parents teach them about differences between people based on race and how to handle incidents of racism and prejudice were more likely to be aware of racism in their environment. There was a trend for children, whose parents include activities regarding African and African American culture in their parenting, to have more preferences for markers of African American culture. Children's racial self-concept was not related to parental racial or cultural socialization behaviors. Children's racial self-concept, and also ethnic self-concept, was associated with several dimensions of general self concept including family, physical, competence, and affective self concepts. Parents' racial and cultural socialization attitudes were not associated with their racial and cultural socialization behaviors. Interestingly, racial identity was also not associated with parental racial or cultural socialization behaviors. Post-hoc standard multiple regression analyses reveal that parental acculturation level on several dimensions of African American culture (i.e., interracial attitudes, traditional religious beliefs and practices) were significantly predictive of parental racial socialization behaviors. Finally, several dimensions of African American culture were significantly related to parental cultural socialization behaviors including preferences for African American things, interracial attitudes, and traditional health beliefs and practices.