Observed dyadic racial socialization disrupts the association between frequent discriminatory experiences and emotional reactivity among Black adolescents

Abstract

Understanding the underlying mechanisms by which racism degrades mental health and the factors that disrupt these mechanisms is paramount. Black adolescents (Mage = 15.5) and their mothers (Mage = 44) were observed discussing a hypothetical discriminatory situation and surveyed about their discriminatory experiences (N = 110). Results indicated that adolescents’ submissive emotional reactivity (e.g., sadness, embarrassment) in direct response to discrimination, rather than dominant reactivity (e.g., anger, frustration), was the primary mechanism explaining the link between discrimination and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Maternal advocacy combined with high levels of dyadic warmth and emotion expression reduced girls’ submissive reactivity, whereas a more directive “no‐nonsense” advocacy approach reduced boys’ submissive reactivity. Findings demonstrate how racial socialization can disrupt the pain of discrimination.

Responding to racism at school: Ethnic‐racial socialization and the academic engagement of Black and Latinx youth

“…The current study aligns with a movement in the field toward greater nuance in the measurement of situation‐specific ethnic‐racial socialization between caregivers and children (Dunbar et al, 2022 ). Several limitations are important to note.…”

“…Very little prior research has combined the use of an observational measure of ethnic-racial socialization with a person-centered analytic approach, let alone one that simultaneously captures global aspects of the childcaregiver relationship alongside ethnically and racially socializing constructs. Of the two studies known to these authors (Caughy et al, 2011;Dunbar et al, 2022), neither involved a joint sample of Black and Latinx caregivers, making this study a substantial contribution to the literature on ethnic-racial socialization. In this crosssectional analysis, we observed discussions between caregivers and children as they responded to a hypothetical situation involving a racially and ethnically discriminatory comment made by a school counselor.…”

“…And lastly, how are profiles of caregiver ethnic‐racial socialization related to youth academic engagement? Very little prior research has combined a profile analysis with observed ethnic‐racial socialization (see Dunbar et al, 2022 for an exception) and fewer still have done so with both Black and Latinx caregivers. Therefore, we did not propose a priori hypotheses regarding what practices may constitute each profile.…”

“They Just Keep Coming”: A Study of How Anti-Black Racial Violence Informs Racial Grief and Resistance Among Black Mothers

“…During the reappraisal and decision-making process, they may assess their available coping resources (i.e., disengagement from the issue, venting to others, expressing emotions, or participating in a protest), and start to engage in various behaviors to help resolve their sense of racial stress. In line with this, studies find that Black parents often have conversations with family members, friends, or their children in which they recount personal experiences of racial discrimination (Dunbar et al, 2022;Saleem et al, 2020), communicate fears for their safety (Kincade & Fox, 2022;Mehra et al, 2022), and offer information about coping-related strategies (Leath et al, 2021;Threlfall, 2018). Overall, we use this theory to explore the nature of Black mothers' responses to vicarious racial violence, with a particular focus on racial grief as an understudied, but critical component of the racial stress and coping process.…”

Black Lives and Black Research Matter: How our Collective Emotions Continue to Drive a Movement

“…However, most of this work does not distinguish the feeling and constructive expression of anger—a normal and healthy response to acts of injustice—from the behavioral or mental health consequences if emotions go unregulated. Recent work from my colleagues and I found that while Black adolescents who reported experiencing discrimination said they felt anger, frustration, and disrespected, these emotions were not associated with depressive symptoms or the fighting and rule‐breaking behaviors that are typically attributed to an underlying anger problem (Dunbar, HaRim Ahn, Coates, & Smith‐Bynum, 2021 ). Instead, sadness, shame, and embarrassment—which may reflect youths’ internalization of denigrating racist messages and self‐blame—were associated with depression/anxiety and externalizing problems (Dunbar et al., 2021 ).…”