This study examined the associations among racial identity beliefs (centrality and public regard), racial discrimination, and academic engagement outcomes among 1,659 African American adolescents across two demographically distinct school districts, one predominantly Black, working class ( n = 1,100) and one predominantly White, middle class ( n = 559). Across these districts, the youths reported that race was a central aspect of their identity and demonstrated varying levels of public regard. Racial discrimination was negatively associated with academic curiosity and persistence, but this effect was moderated by gender and racial identity. Our findings demonstrate the harmful influence of discrimination on the academic engagement of African American adolescents and the protective roles of racial identity beliefs across gender and school racial contexts.
Ethnic–racial socialization (ERS) is the collection of practices by which individuals learn about norms, values, and customs regarding ethnicity and race (Hughes et al., 2006). In contrast to research with families of color, few studies have examined ERS among White families (Umaña-Taylor & Hill, 2020). In this study, we used the Consensual Qualitative Research procedure (Hill et al., 2005) to analyze the ERS goals expressed by 35 White parents of White children during semi-structured interviews. We identified 11 domains (privilege awareness, take action, racism, value diversity, egalitarianism, children lead the way, informed, embracing the difficulty of being anti-racist, empathy, protection, and racial–ethnic identity) that generally map onto Hughes et al.’s (2006) existing ERS framework. Our results suggest that some White parents have ERS goals that move beyond kindness and diversity to delve into issues of equity and justice in order to support children in their own anti-racist journies.
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