Perceived Parental Ethnic-Racial Socialization as a Predictor of African American Youths' Racial Identity, Critical Conciousness, and Race-Related Stress

Abstract

African American parents engage in ethnic-racial socialization practices, which may foster their youths’ racial identity and critical consciousness development, each of which may decrease youths’ race-related stress. The few studies that have examined the relationships between African American youths’ perceived parental ethnic-racial socialization practices and their racial identity or critical consciousness have used inconsistent conceptualizations of racial identity. No studies have compared the effectiveness of different kinds of perceived parental socialization practices on critical consciousness development, nor has previous research demonstrated that critical consciousness is related to reduced stress. In the present study, the perceived parental strategies of Cultural Socialization and Preparation for Bias were investigated to determine how they were related to racial identity and critical consciousness development. Also, effects of racial identity and critical consciousness on racial stress were studied. African American youths, ages 18-24 years (N=139), completed a demographic questionnaire, perceived ethnic-racial socialization measures, a racial identity measure, critical consciousness measures and a measure of race-related stress. Multivariate multiple regression analyses revealed that parental Cultural Socialization was related to lower levels of Preencounter (conformity), Post-Encounter (confusion), and higher levels of Internalization (self-actualizing) racial identity statuses, and to critical consciousness dimensions of Critical Reflection and Political Efficacy, but lower levels of Critical Action. Parental Preparation for Bias only predicted Preencounter. Critical Reflection was related to high levels of Cultural Race-Related Stress, was negatively related to Institutional Race-Related Stress, and was not related to Individual Race-Related Stress. Each of the other critical consciousness dimensions was related to higher levels of at least one type of race-related stress, rather than lower levels. Immersion/Emersion was related to high levels of all three types of race-related stress. Implications of the findings are that (a) parental Cultural Socialization strategies may be most useful for promoting racial identity and critical consciousness, (b) parental strategies may encourage all aspects of critical consciousness except political action, and (c) with only a couple of exceptions, racial identity and critical consciousness were related to higher stress.