Through the looking glass: Ethnic racial socialization among children and adolescents

Abstract

Ethnicity and race are critical in how children and youth experience, negotiate, and navigate development. A robust literature has illustrated that ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) in particular plays an important role in how children develop an understanding of ethnicity and race. The majority of research has typically focused on parents as agents of socialization and ERS during adolescence. In addition, most studies use survey approaches and focus on US-based populations. We highlight conceptual, theoretical, and empirical work that seeks to push forward knowledge about the myriad ways in which individuals, interactions, and settings communicate messages to youth about ethnicity and race. Here we provide a brief overview of the literature on ERS, followed by a set of core commitments that guided our solicitation and selection of articles for this special issue. The articles represent a range of theoretical frameworks and methodologies; cover ERS of children across the developmental spectrum; examine children from multiple ethnic-racial groups; elaborate issues related to intersectionality and co-constructed identities; and consider socialization of ethnicity-race as it occurs across multiple settings, inclusive of families. We conclude with a description of the articles included in this special issue and how they map onto our core commitments.

Unpacking school ethnic‐racial socialization: A new conceptual model

“…All transmitters influence and interact with each other as well as with transmitters from outside the school (e.g., parents, communities, online experiences) and with the influence of historical and community contexts (Hughes et al., 2016; Ruck et al., in press). For example, as transmitters, parents react to youth's experiences at school, particularly when it comes to discrimination (e.g., Banerjee & Eccles, 2019).…”

Looking through a kaleidoscope: The phenomenological ethnic‐racial socialization conceptual model and its application to U.S. Black and Latino Youth and families

“…The meaning that youth make of their skin color, also influenced by their contexts, intersecting identities, and the related ERS messages they receive, make youth of color functional partners in the socialization process throughout their development (Ruck et al., 2021). From an early age, children recognize the importance of skin color and its meaning in society (Swanson et al., 2009).…”

“…ERS is defined as the ways in which socialization agents such as families and peers transmit information to children about race, ethnicity, cultural heritage, and group social status (Hughes et al., 2006). Families are the key socialization agent for youth (Ruck et al., 2021). Families refer to a diverse constellation of family patterns, including parents; other family members such as aunts, siblings, and grandparents; and caregivers who are not related by blood, marriage, or adoption.…”

“…Only recently have researchers considered how ERS messages may be influenced by youths’ identities other than race and ethnicity (e.g., Davis Tribble et al., 2019). In considering intersectionality – the structural examination of how power and oppression differentially operate to shape individuals’ experiences in light of their multiple identities such as gender and sexuality (Crenshaw, 1991), ERS research should consider how youth and families make meaning of youths’ other intersecting identities (Ruck et al., 2021). We posit that these intersecting identities—the experience of having multiple identities, ascribed and perceived, and the meaning attached to how those identities intersect (Pinderhughes et al., 2019)—can influence the meaning made of skin color and thus, families’ ERS processes.…”

“…Despite advances in this work, researchers have rarely considered how youths' of color physical appearance may influence family ERS messages. Youths’ socialization is most significantly affected by their families (Ruck, Hughes & Niwa, 2021). Families help youth understand their race, ethnicity, culture and identity and build resilience in the face of racism (Umaña‐Taylor & Hill, 2020).…”