Ethnic-Racial and Religious Identity as Mediators of Relations Between Ethnic-Racial Socialization and Prosocial Behaviors Among Black Young Adults

Abstract

Scholars have long asserted the importance of studying cultural socialization processes predicting prosocial behaviors, but studies on this topic among Black young adults are rare. The current study examined the mediating roles of ethnic-racial identity and religious identity in associations between ethnic-racial socialization and prosocial behaviors among Black young adults. Participants consisted of 208 Black young adults ( Mage = 19.90 years, SDage = 1.62, 73.6% women) from universities across the United States, who reported on their ethnic-racial socialization, ethnic-racial identity, religious identity, and prosocial behaviors. Mediation analyses showed that ethnic-racial identity and religious identity mediated the relation between ethnic-racial socialization and prosocial behavior. Our findings highlight the ways in which cultural socialization and identity processes foster prosocial behaviors among Black young adults. Discussion focuses on a culturally grounded and strengths-based understanding of prosocial development among Black young adults.

“Be Kind But Not Too Kind”: Black Males' Prosocial Behaviors in the Face of Dehumanization

“…For example, the participants understood prosociality as a cultural value of the Black community and a means to community cohesion (“It’s just the way we were brought up”). These findings recall previous studies illustrating the contribution of racial socialization messages to prosociality (Lozada et al., 2017; Mayia et al., 2021; White‐Johnson, 2012, 2015).…”

“…The high prosocial group in the present study reported experiences related to the predictors of REI, discrimination, identity as oppressed, and parental racial socialization. Like others, we also found prosociality was motivated to dispel stereotypes (Mayia et al., 2021) and to contribute to the community (White‐Johnson, 2012, 2015). We originally conceptualized prosocial behaviors as a stage specific outcome, but they can also be seen here as reactive coping mechanisms.…”

“…Maiya et al. (2021) demonstrated that parental racial‐ethnic socialization messages contributed to the prosocial attitudes of Black college students, mediated by their REI and religious identity. The authors interpreted their measure of prosocial attitudes as representing respectable citizenship and argue that it is motivated by the desire to counter negative stereotypes.…”

“…They suggested that prosociality can be motivated by the development of a critical social analysis and independently by experiences of oppression. It remains to be investigated how helping others in early to mid‐adolescence (Lozada et al., 2017) develops into civic engagement and advancement of social justice in college students (Mayia et al., 2021; White‐Johnson, 2012, 2015).…”

“…Quantitative research has identified REI as a mediator between social experiences and prosocial outcomes (Belgrave et al., 2011; Fergus et al., 2005; Harris & Kruger, 2019; Lozada et al., 2017; Maiya et al., 2021; Quimby et al., 2018; Smith et al., 1999; White‐Johnson, 2012, 2015). It should be noted that others have investigated REI as a moderator (e.g., Fisher et al., 2020) and as an outcome variable (e.g., DiClemente et al., 2018).…”