Psychology

The Relation Between Parental Racial Socialization and African Americans' Racial Ideologies

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Racial ideology shapes how African Americans interpret the world and cope with race-related issues and events. A complex interaction of individual, family, and group experiences in one's sociocultural and historical context is critical to the development of racial ideology. While parental racial socialization has been associated with racial identity, the more specific relationship between parental racial socialization and racial ideology is less understood. The present study examined the association of four dimensions of racial socialization messages reported by participants (cultural socialization, preparation for bias, promotion of mistrust, and egalitarian socialization) with four dimensions of racial ideology (assimilationist, humanist, oppressed minority, and nationalist) using hierarchical linear regression (n = 89 African American college students). Participants' endorsement of assimilationist and oppressed minority ideologies was not predicted by racial socialization messages. However, endorsement of humanist and nationalist ideologies was predicted by cultural and egalitarian socialization messages in opposing directions. Cultural socialization was associated with endorsement of higher nationalist and lower humanist ideology, whereas egalitarian socialization was associated with the endorsement of lower nationalist and higher humanist ideology. © The Author(s) 2012.

Publication Title

Journal of Black Psychology

Publication Date

8-1-2013

Volume

39

Issue

4

First Page

396

Last Page

410

ISSN

0095-7984

DOI

10.1177/0095798412461805

Keywords

ideology, parental, racial, socialization

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