Psychology
The role of racial socialization in promoting the academic expectations of African American adolescents: Realities in a post-brown era
Abstract
While segregation in public schools was found unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas case in 1954, many present day African American students still attend segregated schools. Within these de facto segregated schools, students meet challenges to educational achievement. In a sample of 160 African American students, the current study examined the relationships among parental racial socialization techniques, school-based discrimination, and future academic expectations. Results showed that cultural socialization messages from parents are salient as these messages act as moderators in the relationship between future academic expectations and peer and teacher-based discrimination, respectively. Thus, in de facto segregated public schools, messages that African American parents give their students assist their students in developing resilient educational pathways.
