An Integrative Conceptual Model of Parental Racial/Ethnic and Emotion Socialization and Links to Children's Social‐Emotional Development Among African American Families

Abstract

Researchers have called for increased evaluation of the processes that contribute to African American children's successful emotional development in the face of discrimination. Parents’ racial/ethnic and emotion socialization have been linked to children's emotional adaption. Although few studies have explicitly evaluated their joint influence on African American children's emotion adaptation, researchers studying racial and ethnic socialization have indirectly incorporated emotion socialization through evaluating parents’ guided emotion regulation strategies as ways to cope with discrimination. Similarly, researchers who study emotion socialization have described emotion socialization practices among African American parents as intentionally preparing children for racial bias regarding how others perceive their emotions. In this article, we synthesize two separate and emerging literatures—the racial/ethnic socialization literature and the literature on emotion socialization among African American families—and outline a conceptual model illustrating the overlap in the two constructs and their joint influence on African American children's social‐emotional adjustment.

The association between mothers’ and daughters’ positive affect is moderated by child cardiac vagal regulation

“…Fourth, observed positive affect might have been biased by the relatively unfamiliar experiment room, or the presence of video equipment (Gardner, 2000). Fifth, the study sample was primarily non-Hispanic and white, which may have limited the generalizability of our findings (e.g., Dunbar et al, 2017). Finally, our study design does not enable us to assess causality, nor does it allow for studying the development of positive affect over time, and further studies might include interventions or longitudinal data in order to further investigate these processes.…”

Family Processes and Children's and Adolescents' Well‐Being

“…These authors noted that “parents who are high on emotion coaching skills are aware of their child's emotions, talk about them in a differentiated way, accept them, and assist their children in experiencing and regulating them” (p. 966). Specifying particular emotion socialization constructs also led to theoretical work that has begun to synthesize emotion socialization and racial socialization processes as they affect children's emotional regulation and socioemotional development (Dunbar, Leerkes, Coard, Supple, & Calkins, ).…”

Prospective Associations of Adolescent Conscientiousness With Psychological Resources and Metabolic Syndrome in Black and White Men

“…Although this pattern would be unexpected given prior research on conscientiousness and MetS, it does suggest a third moderation hypothesis: that conscientiousness could be associated with worse physical health for Blacks or low SES individuals, but better health for Whites or high SES individuals (see Figure 1c). The racial disparities literature suggests this pattern may occur for a number of reasons, including stress and discrimination (13), use of emotional suppression strategies (19), and lower aspirations and expectations for later success, which may result in lower academic achievement (20) and more goal disengagement (21). Additionally, the fast life history strategies literature suggests they might take on adult social roles earlier (20,21) due to living in stressful environments.…”