Bias awareness predicts color conscious racial socialization methods among White parents

Abstract

The majority of White parents in the United States are uncomfortable discussing race with their children and tend to avoid it. When they do discuss race with their children, they often take a color blind approach-in which they emphasize a belief that race does not matter-instead of a color conscious approachin which they acknowledge race-related issues. In the current study, we sought to explore the individual difference factors that may be associated with White American parents' racial socialization practices. Results indicated that parents' racial bias awareness was associated with greater willingness to discuss race with their children, increased color consciousness, and decreased color blindness; when statistically controlling for their racial attitudes, motivations to respond without prejudice, and interracial contact. The potential impacts of bias awareness interventions on White parents' racial socialization behaviors are discussed.Despite their tendency to endorse egalitarianism (Dovidio, 2009;

Psychological Science is Not Race Neutral

“…This creates a motivated tendency among White people to, across many contexts, deny racial privileges that they incur as a function of their elevated status (Lowery, Knowles, & Unzueta, 2007). For example, White parents tend to avoid mentioning race in conversations with their children because they view such conversations to be negative or unnecessary (Abaied & Skinner, 2020;Perry, Skinner, & Abaied, 2019).…”

Forging Diversity‐Science‐Informed Guidelines for Research on Race and Racism in Psychological Science

“…But it is external validity that helps us to know how people differ, how environment matters, and even how our variables operate across contexts” (p. 705). An approach to research on race and racism that encourages the examination of psychological theories outside of the lab and the development of societal interventions through policy is also in broad alignment with Lewin's () famous argument that “research that produces nothing but books will not suffice.” Even research that has not reached the interventions stage can benefit from researchers’ awareness and discussion of potential interventions that may stem from it (e.g., Perry, Skinner, & Abaied, ).…”

“When will it be over?” U.S. Children’s Questions and Parents’ Responses about the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Specifically, we examine children's questions and parents' responses to those questions. We focus on parent-child conversations as these have been identified as critical in children's cognitive development (Chouinard, 2007;Menendez et al, 2020), the development of social cognition (Perry et al, 2019) and the development of coping skills (Field et al, 2014). Thus, we do not only focus on how parents talk about the COVID-19 virus to their children, but how they discuss various topics such as norms and preventative measures surrounding the pandemic and coping with the stress and uncertainty associated with the pandemic.…”

“…Given the importance of parental responses to children, in general, and explanations, in particular, it is worth examining what predicts how parents respond to children. Some studies suggest parents' awareness and motivations predict their response to children violating norms (Perry et al, 2019;Scott et al, 2019). Parents' feelings of self-efficacy also seem to predict whether they avoid engaging in educational opportunities with their children (Grolnick et al, 1997).…”