The Intersection of Racial–Ethnic Socialization and Adolescence: A Closer Examination at Stage‐Salient Issues

Abstract

The literature on parental racial–ethnic socialization (RES) has established the multiple protective effects of RES on developmental outcomes. Although the majority of this literature examines RES processes in adolescence, with the exception of identity processes this literature has not specifically tackled how these messages intersect with specific adolescent developmental processes. We review the literature on RES processes in non‐White adolescents with a focus on the parent–adolescent relationship, risk‐taking behaviors, romantic relationships, and different contexts (i.e., extracurricular, work, and social media settings). We propose that developmental science needs to account for how parental RES may not only change in adolescence, but in particular responds to the perceived risks associated with this developmental period and interacts with normative developmental tasks and milestones.

Parenting Practices in Diverse Family Structures: Examination of Adolescents’ Development and Adjustment

“…Feelings of “otherness” also may elevate parents’ awareness of the need to socialize their children on ways to manage social stigma and their lives as socially marginalized families. This process of parental socialization—that is, transmitting values, norms, information, and social perspectives to their children to instill a sense of self‐pride and to help them prepare for potential barriers and biases that they may encounter (Murry et al., ; see Stein, Coard, Kiang, Smith, & Mejia, in this issue)—is often associated with parenting among families of color and African Americans specifically. In diverse family structures, parents may also help their children develop strategies for countering negative experiences associated with social labeling of differences as a function of the structure of their family as well as build resilience and empowerment to navigate and reject negative messages about their family form (Brega & Coleman, ; Knight, Bernal, Garza, Cota, & O'Campo, ; Phinney & Chavira, ).…”

“…A more detailed discussion of ethnic–racial socialization has been provided in this issue by Stein et al. (, this issue). Despite this void, our summary, thus far, highlights that, depending on historical time and cultural norms, family structure may lead to marginalization or stigma for youth, which may affect their development over the life course.…”

Parent–Adolescent Socialization of Social Class in Low‐Income White Families: Theory, Research, and Future Directions

“…The dearth of psychological research on socialization of status in families in general or White poor in particular is perhaps surprising then, given strides made in convincingly demonstrating that parents have the capacity to prepare their children for the complex challenges of navigating other marginalized identities, most notably race and ethnicity (see Stein et al. in this Special Issue). Thus, we turned to theory and data from a range of psychological, as well as nonpsychological, sources, with the aim of generating hypotheses regarding the potential messages transmitted between parents and adolescents in this understudied context.…”

“…That is, we are not aware of a measure of parent–adolescent socialization of social class. Progress toward such a measure could likely be informed by measure development in the study of racial socialization and advances in measurement in that area (see Stein et al., in this Special Issue). Inherent within social status scale development will also likely be consideration of how constructs such as White privilege or perhaps the perception of the absence of White privilege may shape parental and, in turn, adolescent attitudes regarding pride for one's identity, diversity of social status, and perceptions of classism and discrimination.…”

Synthesizing a Special Issue on Parenting Adolescents in an Increasingly Diverse World

“…The challenge of navigating an increasingly diverse world is not new—socially marginalized youth have long lived with a foot in more than one world (for examples, see Mills‐Koonce, Rehder, & McCurdy, , in this issue; Stein, Coard, Kiang, Smith, & Mejia, , in this issue). However, given changing demography in the United States along many dimensions (including family structure, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and social class as highlighted in this special issue), this challenge may become more common across youth in American society.…”