The initial development and validation of the Racial Socialization Competency Scale: Quality and quantity.

Abstract

Objectives: The present study investigated the reliability and validity of the Racial Socialization Competency Scale (RaSCS). As posited by the Racial Encounter Coping Appraisal and Socialization Theory (RECAST), the RaSCS consists of 3 factors representing 3 novel dimensions of racial socialization competency present in families (e.g., stress, skills, and confidence). Method: Responses to the RaSCS were collected from 361 self-identified Black and African American parents and primary caretakers across the United States. Results: After factor analysis, three scales and 27 items were maintained. Evidence was consistently found for 2 subscales within the stress dimension, namely “Call to Action” and “General” racial socialization stressors. Dimensions were also related to their respectively hypothesized constructs, including overall stress, racial socialization frequency, and self-efficacy. Conclusions: Future directions and recommendations on the measure’s use, particularly in the context of interventions, are also discussed.

Interrupting the Pathway From Discrimination to Black Adolescents’ Psychosocial Outcomes: The Contribution of Parental Racial Worries and Racial Socialization Competency

“…Racially specific communication and practices between Black parents and their children-or racial socializationhave been found to modulate the impact of discrimination on adolescent internalizing and externalizing psychosocial outcomes (e.g., Bynum, Burton, & Best, 2007;Neblett et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2020). Researchers have shown that racial socialization makes a meaningful contribution to the coping strategies that parents teach their children to employ when dealing with racial stressors (Anderson, Jones, Anyiwo, et al, 2019;Anderson, Jones, & Stevenson, 2019;Gaylord-Harden & Cunningham, 2009). Yet, few researchers have identified other pathways and mechanisms from racial socialization to adolescents' psychosocial well-being.…”

“…One potentially important mechanism is parental worry over the impact of discrimination on their teen children, particularly when parental discrimination is the stressor contributing to adolescents' psychosocial problems (Cooper, Smalls-Glover, Metzger, & Brown, 2015;Herda, 2016;Thomas & Blackmon, 2015). Additionally, the confidence, skills, and stress that parents have regarding their racial socialization abilities (i.e., racial socialization competency; Anderson, Jones, & Stevenson, 2019) may align more directly with the fearful worry espoused by or repressed within parents in response to their own discriminatory experiences (Anderson, McKenny, Mitchell, Koku, & Stevenson, 2018). Taken together, and guided by the racial encounter coping appraisal and socialization theory (RECAST; Stevenson, 2014), this study seeks to examine the associations between parental racial discrimination experiences, race-related worries, racial socialization competency, and adolescents' psychosocial problems, including both internalizing and externalizing outcomes.…”

Not the Same Old Song and Dance: Viewing Racial Socialization Through a Family Systems Lens to Resist Racial Trauma

“…Herein lies the new challenge of whether racial socialization, through intentional intervention efforts, can improve the chances, probability, and competence of racial socialization providers to prevent and alleviate the trauma, not only of the children, but the entire family. This approach centers the notion of competency in racial socialization, or the skills, stress, and confidence inherent in racial communication with children (Anderson et al, 2020). Raising children is a challenging task for anyone; however, unique socialization factors, including building confidence and skills, are needed to effectively equip Black and Brown children to succeed in a society plagued with racial strife.…”

“…This content-centric perspective has been defined as The Talk both in scientific and lay discourse (Public Broadcasting Service, 2020). More recently, scholars have beseeched those of us doing work in this space to consider that if parents are tasked with providing racial socialization messages, then it is important that they feel as confident, skillful, and as minimally stressed as fighting against racism as can possibly be (Anderson et al, 2020). These scholars refer to the importance of parents' competency in racial socialization as Walking The Talk (see Jones et al, 2021).…”

“One Minute for Your Mind”: The Development, Implementation, and Application of Our Mental Health Minute

“…As is customary with our creative process, we seek to share the development of this video series in a fairly nontraditional way. Although we have collaborated on a number of research articles utilizing the scientific process (Anderson et al, 2019; Anderson, Jones, Anyiwo, et al, 2018; Anderson, Jones, Navarro, et al, 2018; Jones et al, 2020), we want to impress on all how creativity breeds academic progress, and how academic innovation necessitates creative expression. To honor this cycle, this article was written and will be presented in the only way befitting our video endeavors: through an iterative and symbiotic process.…”