Indian Americans are an under researched population within the racial-ethnic socialization (RES) literature, and very little is known about how Indian American immigrant families navigate these conversations. To fill this gap in the literature, the present study explored parent and youth perspectives of RES processes in Indian American families. A total of six focus groups were conducted with 13 adolescents (mean age = 13.6; 60% girls) and 15 parents (mean age = 42.0; 62% mothers). Inductive thematic analysis of focus group transcripts revealed that cultural socialization and the lack of preparation for bias were the most salient RES messages Indian American parents provided their adolescents. Parents' messages related to cultural socialization heavily centered on cultural and ethnic pride. These pride messages were often consistent with the model minority stereotype. Despite many parents and adolescents reporting experiencing discrimination, parents typically refrained from providing preparation for bias messages. Parents' perspectives also revealed a shared difficulty in discerning when an event was racially discriminatory. When parents did provide coping with discrimination messages, these messages most often encouraged adolescents to simply "avoid it" or "ignore it." Consequently, adolescents reported feeling ill-prepared to face racial-ethnic discrimination, indicating an unmet need for timely and helpful preparation for bias messages.What is the public significance of this article? Very little is known about how Indian American immigrant families navigate conversations around racism and discrimination. Along with identifying several facets of racial-ethnic socialization (RES) messages, the study highlights the discrepancy between possible reservations held by the parents and the need for RES messages voiced by the adolescents. These findings call attention to the complexity and importance of further studying RES within Indian American communities.

Immigrants currently account for close to 14% of the United States’ population with one in four children growing up in an immigrant household. Yet, little is known about how immigrant parents and their adolescents dialogue about race and ethnicity within the evolving sociopolitical environment. Traditionally, the adolescents’ role in racial-ethnic socialization (RES) has been conceptualized as receivers of messages around race and ethnicity from their parents. However, differential rates at which adolescents and parents acculturate to the mainstream society could lead the adolescent to possess a more contemporary understanding of the social and racial landscape in the United States, thereby becoming the “deliverer” of messages on racial socialization rather being just a “receiver.” To inform our understanding of the potential process of how adolescents might be positioned to socialize their parents on race/ethnicity, this paper integrates key aspects of RES, racial-ethnic identity, and critical consciousness among Latinx and Asian immigrant adolescents to inform a conceptual model of adolescent-directed RES. The current conceptual model highlights several important avenues for future research to empirically assess individual and familial factors associated with adolescent-directed RES.

Filial obligations have been associated with promoting positive psychosocial outcomes in Latinx youth (Fuligni et al., 1999), but the promotive effects can be attenuated when youth perceive the obligations as unfair (Kuperminc et al., 2013). Despite its important role, little is known about what contributes to the perceived unfairness of filial obligations. The present study examined factors nested within the acculturative process (i.e., behavioral practices, values, identity, parent-child relationship, and acculturation gap) as predictors of perceived unfairness related to familial obligations among Latinx youth. Results indicated that the endorsement of mainstream cultural practices and values as well as greater acculturation gap conflict were associated with higher perceptions of unfairness. Future studies would benefit from considering the acculturative context of the sample and focusing on familial dynamics to better understand perceptions of unfairness and its impacts on psychological outcomes. Public Significance StatementDiscrepancies between Latinx youth and their parents in American mainstream cultural values are associated with youth perceiving their filial obligations as more unfair and burdensome. Given this, providing avenues for recognition and reciprocation of filial obligations within Latinx families might play a key role in reducing conflict that might be stemming from different endorsements of cultural values.