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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Cultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol. 2021 Jul 19;27(4):781–795. doi: 10.1037/cdp0000452

Parenting Despite Discrimination: Does Racial Identity Matter?

Kathleen Holloway 1, Fatima Varner 1
PMCID: PMC8497417  NIHMSID: NIHMS1712397  PMID: 34279979

Abstract

Background:

Previous research suggests that parents’ characteristics and race-related experiences shape the racial socialization messages they give their children. Parents’ beliefs about race may also relate to how they interpret and respond to race-related stressors. The current study drew on the Sociohistorical Integrative Model for the Study of Stress in Black Families to examine the moderating roles of gender and racial identity subscales (i.e., racial centrality, private regard, and public regard) on the relations between race-related stressors (i.e., personal, vicarious, and anticipated racial discrimination) and racial socialization.

Method:

Path analyses were conducted in Mplus 8.2 using online survey data from a national sample of 567 African American parents of adolescents.

Results:

There were 7 significant 3-way interactions. Racial centrality and gender moderated the relations between both personal and vicarious racial discrimination and each racial socialization message. Private regard and gender moderated the relations between personal racial discrimination and preparation for bias and between vicarious racial discrimination and cultural socialization. Public regard and parent gender moderated the relation between personal racial discrimination and cultural socialization.

Conclusions:

The findings highlighted that parents’ experiences of personal, vicarious, and anticipated racial discrimination have different relations with their racial socialization messages. Additionally, it highlighted that racial identity and parent gender are related to the type of racial socialization messages African American parents who are exposed to race-related stressors give their children.

Keywords: adolescents, African Americans, parents, racial discrimination, racial identity

Family relationships are a primary context in which African American youth receive racial socialization messages (Rivas-Drake et al., 2009). Racial socialization messages are communications about race, ethnicity, and interracial relations (Boykin & Toms, 1985) and most commonly come from parents (Hughes et al., 2009). The most commonly studied types include preparation for bias (e.g., communications about potential racial barriers) and cultural socialization (e.g., exposure to one’s culture; Hughes & Chen, 1997). Cultural socialization has been linked to adolescents’ academic achievement, fewer problem behaviors, and better psychological functioning (Neblett et al., 2012). Preparation for bias has more mixed findings but moderate levels have been linked to reduced problem behaviors, increased self-esteem, and well-being in the presence of racial discrimination (Harris-Britt et al., 2007; Wang & Benner, 2016). Much research on racial socialization has focused on adolescents due to their increased understanding of social relations, exploration of racial identity, and autonomy, which can increase their exposure to discrimination (Huguley et al., 2019).

Considerable research has linked African American parents’ racial socialization messages to adolescent outcomes (see Hughes et al., 2006; Wang et al., 2020 for review). Additionally, research has examined how African American parents’ characteristics, personal racial discrimination, and racial identity shape their racial socialization messages (White-Johnson et al., 2010); yet, the research examining vicarious and anticipated racial discrimination in African American families is more limited. The purpose of this study was to examine how parents’ race-related stressors, racial identity, and gender shape the racial socialization messages they give their adolescents.

Theoretical Framework

The Sociohistorical Integrative Model for the Study of Stress in Black Families (Murry, et al., 2018) highlights the role of stressors that are a product of socio-historical racism in the everyday functioning of African American individuals including emotional regulation and parenting. This model extends past ecological and risk and resilience theories (e.g., Coll et al., 1996; Peters & Massey, 1983) to include a framework of culturally specific protective factors within African American families that allow them to flourish despite adversities (Masten, 2001; Murry, 2018, p. 392). According to this model, sociocultural contextual stressors lead to African American families experiencing environmental stressors such as race-related daily hassles.

These daily racial hassles include personal racial discrimination, vicarious racial discrimination (i.e., witnessing or hearing about racial discrimination; Agnew, 2002), and anticipated racial discrimination (i.e., fear of future discrimination; Utsey et al., 2013). These stressors can undermine family interactions and functioning (Varner et al., 2020). Yet, African American families have coping assets, such as racial identity, that can play a role in attenuating the relations among stressors and family processes. In this study, we focus on how a set of racial stressors are related to racial socialization, which has been established as an adaptation to racism for African American families. We also examine racial identity and parent gender as moderators of these relations.

Race-related Stressors

Most research exploring race-related stressors among African Americans has examined personal racial discrimination (Heard-Garris et al, 2018). This focus on personal racial discrimination may underestimate race-related stress in families. African American individuals experience various forms of racism including vicarious and anticipated racial discrimination (Pieterse & Powell, 2016). These experiences of race-related stressors may influence African American parents’ racial socialization messages. For example, parents may prepare their children to cope with racial stressors after they are exposed to others’ racial discrimination experiences. Additionally, the worry of experiencing future racial discrimination may lead parents to communicate about race with their children.

Personal experiences of racial discrimination are the most commonly studied form of race-related stress (Heard-Garris et al, 2018). Experiences of personal racial discrimination occur at an interpersonal level through direct verbal or non-verbal interactions (Harrell, 2000) because of one’s racial group membership. These experiences occur in multiple settings such as one’s neighborhood and work (Krysan & Farley, 2002). Previous research suggests that one’s own race-related experiences guide the racial socialization messages they give their children (Cooper et al., 2015). For example, parents who have experienced higher personal racial discrimination have been found to transmit more racial socialization messages to their children (Hughes & Chen, 1997).

Researchers have started to explore the influence of vicarious racial discrimination on African Americans’ outcomes. Vicarious racial discrimination is witnessing or learning about racial discrimination that happened to someone else (Agnew, 2002; Harrell, 2000; Heard-Garris et al., 2018). Individuals experience vicarious racial discrimination through different sources including media, and through other people. Vicarious racial discrimination is widely experienced and may happen to friends, family members, or strangers. In one study, approximately 70% of African American and multiracial individuals had witnessed online vicarious racial discrimination (Tynes et al., 2008). Vicarious racial discrimination experiences may include witnessing the discrimination experience of someone close in age or the same gender as their child (e.g., Trayvon Martin), which may prompt parents to engage in racial socialization (Thomas & Blackmon, 2015) as parents may believe their children are vulnerable to unfair treatment and adverse outcomes of racial discrimination (Truong et al, 2016).

Anticipated racial discrimination, a cognitive experience, may differ from experiences of personal and vicarious racial discrimination. Anticipated racial discrimination is the fear or worry that one may experience racial discrimination in the future (Herda, 2016). This race-related stressor is not uncommon as Herda (2016) found that about half of the African Americans in his sample feared experiencing racial discrimination at least once in the previous year. Little research has explored how anticipating racial discrimination is related to racial socialization messages although previous research has found links between anticipated racial discrimination and African Americans’ responsive parenting (Varner & Mandara, 2013). It is possible that anticipating racial discrimination is related to other parenting approaches including racial socialization messages as parents’ expectations can shape the messages they give their children (Azar et al., 2005).

Racial Identity

Parents’ racial identity may play a role in their racial socialization messages. Racial identity is an individual’s beliefs about belonging to a particular racial group. According to the Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity, it includes racial centrality (i.e., how a person defines themselves with respect to their race), private regard (i.e., beliefs about one’s membership and other members of their race), and public regard (i.e., interpretation of the beliefs of others about their own racial group; Sellers et al., 1998). Beliefs about race may influence how individuals interpret and respond to race-related stressors. For example, African Americans who reported feeling connected to their racial identity, reported feeling unsafe and angry in response to the death of Trayvon Martin (Thomas & Blackmon, 2015).

Racial identity domains have been examined as moderators of the associations between race-related stressors and psychological functioning (Hughes et al., 2015; Rivas-Drake et al., 2014). When African Americans reported low (vs high) public regard they were buffered from negative consequences of racial discrimination experiences on their substance use (Fuller-Rowell et al., 2012) and psychological outcomes (Sellers & Shelton, 2003). In another study, high racial centrality was protective against racial discrimination experiences for psychological outcomes (Neblett et al., 2004). Researchers have also examined parents’ racial identity in relation to racial socialization. Parents are more likely to engage in racial socialization if they have a salient racial identity (Thomas & Speight, 1999). Hughes and colleagues (2006) posited that parents who report high racial centrality (i.e., regard race as highly important) and parents who report low public regard (i.e., believe that others view their race negatively) communicate more frequently about racial discrimination with their children. Additionally, parents who have either high racial centrality or high private regard (i.e., positive views of their own race) have endorsed more positive messages about their racial group to their children (Crouter et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2020). Lastly, research has found that parents who reported higher private regard and reported interpersonal racial discrimination were more likely to engage in racial socialization (Thomas et al., 2010).

Studies have examined racial identity as a correlate to parenting but few studies have examined racial identity as a moderator of the association between race-related stressors and parenting. Similar to the research on psychological functioning, racial identity could influence how parents interpret and respond to racial stressors, including parenting responses. Because race is an important part of their identity, parents with high (vs low) racial centrality who experience race-related stressors may prioritize discussions with their children about race to protect their children’s self-esteem through cultural socialization, as well as discuss potential race-related challenges their children may face. Similarly, parents with high private regard and race-related stress may engage in more cultural socialization in order to instill positive ideals about their race to their children. In contrast, parents with high public regard have lower expectancies for discriminatory experiences and may be more likely to internalize when they experience race-related stressors (Sellers & Shelton, 2003) rather than employ adaptive strategies such as racial socialization.

Parent Gender

More exploration of parental gender differences in racial socialization is needed as mothers have been the primary focus in previous research (Cooper et al., 2019). Mothers may be the main source of racial socialization messages for children as they are often the primary caregivers (White-Johnson et al., 2010). Previous research has found that mothers engage in more frequent cultural socialization (McHale et al., 2006) and preparation for bias (Crouter et al., 2008) compared to fathers. Additionally, mothers and fathers are informed by their discriminatory experiences but differ in the racial socialization messages they give their adolescents (McNeil Smith et al., 2016). When mothers experienced racial discrimination they communicated more cultural socialization and preparation for bias compared to fathers who engaged only in more preparation for bias. Further, Crouter and colleagues (2008) found that in response to racial discrimination, mothers engaged in more cultural socialization but there were no significant links between racial discrimination and racial socialization for fathers. This study will extend the research on gender differences in parental racial socialization by examining vicarious and anticipated discrimination. Overall, previous studies suggest that mothers will engage in higher cultural socialization when they experience high levels of racial stressors, whereas fathers may only engage in higher preparation for bias.

Current Study

The goal of the current study was to examine the moderating roles of racial identity and parent gender on the relations between race-related stressors and racial socialization messages. First, it was hypothesized that race-related stressors would be related to higher cultural socialization and preparation for bias. Second, we hypothesized that relations between race-related stressors and racial socialization would differ based on parents’ racial identity. Based on previous conceptual and empirical work, we expected that individuals with high (vs low) racial centrality would have stronger relations between race-related stressors and cultural socialization and preparation for bias. We expected parents with low (vs high) public regard would have stronger relations between race-related stressors and preparation for bias, as these parents may be more likely to expect their children to experience or witness racial discrimination than parents who think others have a positive view of African Americans. Because public regard is about perceptions of others we expected it to be relevant for preparation for bias but not cultural socialization.

Among parents with high (vs low) private regard, we expected stronger relations between race-related stress and cultural socialization as parents with more positive views of thier race would be more likely to pass this on to their children, particularly when race is more salient through exposure to race-related stressors. We did not expect private regard to moderate the relation between race-related stressors and preparation for bias as private regard centers on one’s own feelings versus on others’ evaluations or negative behaviors towards one’s racial group. Lastly, we explored whether these relations differed by parent gender.

Method

Participants

Study participants consisted of 567 parents (Mage = 45; SD = 8.89; rangeage: 26–78; 56.1% female) who identified as African American or Black, lived in the United States, and had a child between the ages of 11 and 18 (Mage = 14; SD = 2.16; 50.4% female). The median family income was $60,000 to $69,999 (range: under $10,000 – above $150,000). In the sample, 20.9% of parents had a high school diploma or less, 16% had an associate degree, 18.2% completed some college, 25.9% had a bachelor’s degree, 3.2% had some graduate schooling, and 15.7% had graduate degrees. The majority (58.9%) of parents were married.

Procedure

An online data collection service, Survey Sampling international, was used to conduct a survey of African American parents of adolescents on topics including parenting behaviors, coping skills, racial identity, race-related stressors, and child’s behaviors and school performance. Survey Sampling International compensates participants for completing surveys using gift cards, PayPal payments, and points that can be redeemed for prizes. Panel members who fit inclusion criteria, based on their profiles, were contacted by Survey Sampling International with a link to the survey. After giving informed consent, participants answered eligibility questions in order to proceed to the survey. The participants needed to be age 18 or over, identify their race and ethnicity as African American or Black, and have a child between the ages 11–18. If participants did not fit this criteria they were directed to the end of the survey. There were 1,618 people who started the survey and 766 were ineligible based on inclusion criteria.

Careless responding is a concern for the quality of data collected in online studies (Meade & Craig, 2012). Items to identify careless responding, “please select ‘Rarely’ for this item,” were included. There were 279 individuals who responded incorrectly to more than one of these items and were not considered a valid complete survey and were excluded during data collection. An additional 6 participants were excluded from data analyses because they indicated an age gap of under 10 years between themselves and their children.

Measures

All measures except for the vicarious discrimination measure were validated in previous studies with African American samples to examine adolescents’ outcomes and parental racial socialization (Hughes & Chen, 1997; Maxwell, 2016; Pascoe & Richman, 2009).

Personal Racial Discrimination

The Everyday Discrimination scale (Williams et al., 1997) was modified to examine parents’ experiences of personal racial discrimination. The scale consisted of 10 items and the question prompt was, “In your day-to-day life how often have any of the following things happened to you because of your race?” Response choices were from 1 (never) to 6 (almost every day). A sample item included, “you are treated with less courtesy than other people.” Items were averaged, (α = .91), and higher scores denoted the participant experienced more personal racial discrimination.

Vicarious Racial Discrimination

To measure vicarious racial discrimination experiences, parents were asked four items created for the survey. Response options followed a 6-point Likert-type scale, 1 (never) to 6 (almost every day). Items included, “how often in the past year did you witness or hear about your child being treated unfairly because of his or her race?”, “how often in the past year did you witness or hear about a friend or family member (other than the target child) being treated unfairly because of his or her race?”, “how often in the past year did you witness or hear about another Black person you knew (not a friend or family member) being treated unfairly because of his or her race?” and “how often in the past year have you heard in the news or on social media about a Black person being treated unfairly because of his or her race?” Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted indicating convergent validity of this measure. Factor loadings for vicarious racial discrimination were .71, .81, .79, and .53. The average variance extracted statistic for vicarious discrimination was calculated and was larger than the correlation between vicarious and personal racial discrimination indicating discriminant validity (Farrell & Rudd, 2009). An average score was used to create a composite variable (α = .76). This measure has been found to be related to parenting and adolescent outcomes in African American families (Holloway & Varner, 2021).

Anticipated Racial Discrimination

Parents responded to one question, “I believe that there is a good chance that I will experience racism in the future,” which measured their anticipation of experiencing racial discrimination. This item is from the Prolonged Activation and Anticipatory Race-Related Stress Scale (Utsey et al., 2013). Response choices were on a 7-point Likert type scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Racial Identity

To measure racial identity the current study used the Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity (Sellers et al., 1997). The measure consisted of 20 items with three subscales including, racial centrality (8-items; α = .74; e.g., “I have a strong sense of belonging to Black people”), private regard (6-items; α = .82; e.g., “I feel that Blacks have made major accomplishments and advancements”), and public regard (6-items; α = .81; e.g., “Society views Black people as an asset”). Response choices followed a 7-point scale, from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). A composite variable was created for each subscale by averaging pertinent scale items.

Racial Socialization

Cultural socialization and preparation for bias items were from Hughes and Chen’s (1997) and Hughes and Johnson’s (2001) measures of racial socialization. Cultural socialization was measured by 3 items (α = .75, e.g., “encouraged child to read books about own ethnic group”) and preparation for bias was measured by 6 items (α = .85; e.g., “talked to child about unfair treatment due to race”). Response choices were on a 5-point Likert-type scale from 1 (never) to 5 (very often). Items were averaged for each subscale.

Analytic Approach

Analyses were conducted in Mplus 8.2 (Muthén & Muthén, 2019). Study variables were centered, and interaction variables were created between each race-related stressor and racial identity subscale, race-related stressor and parent gender, racial identity subscale and parent gender, and between each race-related stressor, racial identity subscale, and parent gender. Next, path analyses were conducted to determine if race-related stressors, racial identity, and parent gender interacted in relation to racial socialization. Full information maximum likelihood was used to address missing data (Arbuckle et al., 1996). Simple slope analyses as described by Aiken & West (1991) and Dawson (2014) were conducted in Mplus to probe significant interactions at one standard deviation above and below the mean. Goodness of fit statistics were evaluated on the criteria, χ2 >.05, RMSEA <.08, and CFI <.09 (Kline, 2015).

The study used family income (in $10,000 increments from under 10,000 to $150,000 and over), marital status (i.e., never married, married, divorced, separated, and widowed), educational attainment (10 options from junior high school or less to Ph.D., J.D., or M.D), adolescent gender (i.e., male, female), adolescent age, and parent age as covariates. Parent gender (i.e., male, female) was also used as a moderator. Marital status was dummy coded with not married (i.e., never married, divorced, separated, and widowed) as the reference group versus married. We have included these covariates based on research by Hughes and colleagues (2006) and Thornton and colleagues (1990) that suggest these demographic characteristics are related to racial socialization.

Results

Descriptive Statistics

Correlation analyses were conducted between study variables (Table 1). Race-related stressors were positively correlated with each other. All race-related stressors were positively correlated with each racial socialization message and racial centrality but negatively correlated with public regard. Private regard was negatively correlated to personal racial discrimination and positively correlated to anticipated racial discrimination. Cultural socialization and preparation for bias were positively correlated and each positively correlated with racial centrality and private regard. Preparation for bias was negatively correlated with public regard. Racial centrality was positively correlated with private regard and negatively correlated with public regard. Mothers had fewer racial discrimination experiences and lower public regard than fathers. Parents with higher education had higher vicarious discrimination exposure, engaged in more cultural socialization, and had higher private regard and lower public regard. Higher family income was associated with higher anticipated racial discrimination, cultural socialization, preparation for bias, and racial centrality. Parent age was associated with higher anticipated racial discrimination, racial centrality, and private regard. Parents with older adolescents had higher racial centrality.

Table 1.

Zero order correlations of study variables

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
1. Personal Discrimination -
2. Vicarious Discrimination .69*** -
3. Anticipated Discrimination .37*** .42*** -
4. Cultural Socialization .21*** .23*** .21*** -
5. Preparation for Bias .35*** .39*** .31*** .75*** -
6. Racial Centrality .17*** .17*** .29*** .42*** .42*** -
7. Private Regard −.10* .02 .22*** .33*** .26*** .45*** -
8. Public Regard −.29*** −.34*** −.39*** −.01 −.19** −.22*** −.01 -
9. Parent Education .05 .09* .06 .06 .09* .08 .09* −.09* -
10. Income .04 .04 .09* .09* .12** .12** .04 −.03 .45*** -
11. Adolescent Gendera .04 −.01 .06 −.03 −.04 .01 −.01 −.08 −.01 −.00 -
12. Adolescent Age −.08 −.05 −.08 −.06 .03 .12** .04 −.02 −.02 .00 .02 -
13. Parent Genderb −.09* −.05 −.03 .04 .03 −.02 .05 −.16*** −.09* −.25*** .07 −.08 -
14. Parent Age −.08 −.08 .09* .01 −.01 .14** .15*** .00 .00 .16*** −.06 .34*** −.22*** -
15. Marriedc .01 −.07 .02 .02 −.00 −.01 −.02 .04 .18*** .43*** .07 .03 −.28*** .11**
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Note.

a

Dummy variable of adolescent gender, with male as reference group,

b

Dummy variable of parent gender, with male as reference group,

c

Dummy variable of marital status with not married as reference group.

*

p < .05,

**

p < .01,

***

p < .001.

Path Analyses

Path analyses were conducted in Mplus 8.2 (Muthén & Muthén, 2019) to examine the relation between parents’ personal, vicarious, and anticipated racial discrimination and parents’ cultural socialization and preparation for bias, as well as the moderating effects of racial identity and parent gender. The model was saturated, χ 2(0) = 0, p <.001, CFI=1.00, RMSEA = 0.00, 90% CI [.00, .00], SRMR = 0.00.

Preparation for Bias

There were several significant interactions for preparation for bias. First, public regard moderated the association between vicarious racial discrimination and preparation for bias (β = −.18, p = .01; Figure 2). When public regard was low, as vicarious racial discrimination increased by one unit, preparation for bias also increased (b = .30, p = .001). When public regard was high, vicarious racial discrimination was not significantly related to preparation for bias (b = .06, p = .34). There was also a significant three-way interaction between vicarious discrimination, racial centrality, and parent gender (β = −.14, p = .04). Simple slopes analyses indicated that for mothers with low (b = .25, p = .002) and high racial centrality (b = .21, p = .02) and fathers with high racial centrality (b = .32, p = .003), as vicarious racial discrimination increased by one unit, preparation for bias was higher (Figure 3).

Figure 2.

Figure 2.

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Interaction between vicarious racial discrimination and public regard on preparation for bias messages. Note: ***p < .001.

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

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Interaction between vicarious racial discrimination, racial centrality, and parent gender on preparation for bias messages. Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

There was a significant two-way interaction between personal racial discrimination and parent gender (β = −.12, p = .03; Figure 4). Simple slopes analyses indicated that among fathers, as personal racial discrimination increased by one unit, preparation for bias increased (b = .51, p <.001). There was also a significant three-way interaction between personal racial discrimination, racial centrality, and parent gender (β = .15, p = .03; Figure 5). Fathers with low racial centrality gave more preparation for bias when they had high (vs low) personal racial discrimination experiences (b = .51, p <.001). No other slopes were significant in this interaction. There was also a significant three way interaction including personal racial discrimination, private regard, and parent gender (β = −.16, p = .02; Figure 6). Simple slopes analysis indicated that for fathers with high private regard, as personal racial discrimination increased by one unit, so did preparation for bias (b = .41, p <.001). No other significant slopes within this interaction were significant.

Figure 4.

Figure 4.

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Interaction between personal racial discrimination and parent gender on preparation for bias messages. Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Figure 5.

Figure 5.

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Interaction between personal racial discrimination, racial centrality, and parent gender on preparation for bias messages. Note. ***p < .001.

Figure 6.

Figure 6.

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Interaction between personal racial discrimination, private regard, and parent gender on preparation for bias messages. Note. ***p < .001.

Lastly, parent gender moderated the relation between anticipated racial discrimination and preparation for bias (β = .16, p = .004; Figure 7). Simple slopes analysis indicated that for mothers, as anticipated racial discrimination increased by one unit, preparation for bias also increased (b = .11, p = .004). Anticipated racial discrimination was not related to preparation for bias for fathers (b = −.06, p = .18).

Figure 7.

Figure 7.

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Interaction between anticipated racial discrimination and parent gender on preparation for bias messages. Note: **p < .01.

Cultural Socialization

There was a significant three-way interaction between personal racial discrimination, racial centrality, and parent gender (β = .18, p = .01; Figure 8). Simple slopes analysis indicated that among fathers with low racial centrality, as personal racial discrimination increased by one unit, so did cultural socialization (b = .38, p = .001). No other slopes were significant in this interaction. In addition, there was a significant three-way interaction between vicarious racial discrimination, racial centrality, and parent gender (β = −.16, p = .02; Figure 9) indicating that among fathers with high racial centrality (b = .29, p = .02) and mothers with low racial centrality (b = .22, p = .02), as vicarious racial discrimination increased by one unit, so did cultural socialization. There were no other significant slopes for this interaction.

Figure 8.

Figure 8.

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Interaction between personal racial discrimination, racial centrality, and parent gender on cultural socialization messages. Note. **p < .01.

Figure 9.

Figure 9.

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Interaction between vicarious racial discrimination, racial centrality, and parent gender on cultural socialization messages. Note. *p < .05.

Further, there was a significant three-way interaction between vicarious racial discrimination, private regard, and parent gender (β = .14, p = .04; Figure 10) indicating that for mothers with high private regard, as vicarious racial discrimination experiences increased by one unit, so did cultural socialization (b = .32, p = .003). There were no other significant slopes for this interaction. Lastly, there was a significant three-way interaction between personal racial discrimination, public regard, and parent gender (β = 17, p = .02; Figure 11) indicating that for fathers with low public regard (b = .25, p = .007) and mothers with high public regard (b = .16, p = .04), as personal racial discrimination increased by one unit, so did cultural socialization. No other slopes were significant in this interaction.

Figure 10.

Figure 10.

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Interaction between vicarious racial discrimination, private regard, and parent gender on cultural socialization messages. Note: **p < .01.

Figure 11.

Figure 11.

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Interaction between personal racial discrimination, public regard, and parent gender on cultural socialization messages. Note. *p < .05, **p < .01.

Discussion

The current study examined the relations between race-related stressors and racial socialization messages and whether these relations differed by parent gender and racial identity domains. We studied these relations among African American parents of adolescents due to adolescents’ increased autonomy, understanding of social stratification, and exploration of racial identity (Huguley et al., 2019). The current study adds to the previous literature by including vicarious and anticipated racial discrimination. Further, this study elucidates the role of parents’ racial identity as a moderator of the association between race-related stressors and racial socialization. The results indicate that links between race-related stressors and racial socialization vary based on parents’ gender and racial identity.

Preparation for Bias

Public regard, private regard, and racial centrality modified the links between race-related stressors and preparation for bias, but the pattern of findings differed based on the type of stressor and parent gender. As noted in the Sociohistorical Integrative Model for the Study of Stress in Black Families, African American families engage in culturally-specific coping behaviors to attenuate impacts of race-related stressors (Murry et al., 2018). For instance, parents with low public regard engaged in more preparation for bias when they experienced high (vs low) vicarious racial discrimination. Previous researchers argued that caregivers with low public regard engage in more preparation for bias because they expect their children to experience racial discrimination (Hughes et al., 2006; Scottham & Smalls, 2009). Exposure to others’ racial discrimination experiences may activate these parents’ concerns about their children experiencing racial discrimination in the future because they view racism as more systemic than parents with high public regard. Thus, parents may engage in more preparation for bias with the belief that they will help prepare their children if they encounter similar race-related stressors (Scottham & Smalls, 2009). Further, fathers with high racial centrality and all mothers gave higher preparation for bias when they had high (vs low) vicarious racial discrimination. Others’ racial discrimination experiences may resonate more among parents with high racial centrality, thus prompting them to engage in more preparation for bias with their children. In addition, mothers may engage in more caregiving (White-Johnson et al., 2010) and therefore, high and low racial centrality mothers engaged in higher preparation for bias when they experienced higher vicarious racial discrimination. Lastly, low racial centrality fathers may not attribute others’ discriminatory experiences as because of race and therefore do not engage in higher preparation for bias.

Among mothers, as anticipated racial discrimination was higher so was preparation for bias. Mothers are often the primary caregivers and engage in more racial socialization because of more interactions with their children compared to fathers (White-Johnson et al., 2010). Mothers’ concerns about their own future experiences of racial discrimination may be more likely to translate to higher communication with their adolescents about racial barriers. Additionally, fathers gave more preparation for bias when they had high (vs low) personal racial discrimination experiences, but at a similar level as mothers regardless of their level of personal racial discrimination experiences. Fathers’ racial discrimination experiences may prompt them to engage in comparable levels of racial socialization as mothers to help prepare their children to cope with racial barriers.

Fathers with high private regard gave higher preparation for bias when their personal racial discrimination experiences were high (vs low). This finding is somewhat consistent with previous studies in which parents with high private regard and high personal racial discrimination experiences were more likely to engage in racial socialization (Thomas et al., 2010). This previous study did not examine parental gender differences. In the current study, there was not a significant difference for high private regard mothers based on their level of personal racial discrimination. Unlike high private regard fathers, high private regard mothers also gave moderate levels of preparation for bias when they experienced low racial discrimination, perhaps due to mothers’ common role as primary socializers (White-Johnson et al., 2010).

Considering parents’ racial centrality, personal racial discrimination was related to higher preparation for bias and cultural socialization only among fathers with low racial centrality. Previous research found that African American mothers and fathers with high racial centrality give high preparation for bias and cultural socialization (Scottham & Smalls, 2009; White-Johnson et al., 2010). These African American parents, for whom race is a salient part of their identity, are less likely to require external events to prompt them to engage in preparation for bias and cultural socialization (Thomas & Speight, 1999). Because race is less salient for parents with low racial centrality, they may be less likely to discuss issues related to racial barriers until an external event occurs, such as experiencing discrimination. Further, low racial centrality mothers engaged in higher racial socialization compared to fathers with low racial centrality. It is possible that mothers may spend more time with their children and therefore engage in more racial socialization overall with their children whereas fathers with low racial centrality need an external stressor to engage in these conversations (White-Johnson et al., 2010).

Cultural Socialization

Personal and vicarious racial discrimination, but not anticipated racial discrimination, were related to parents’ cultural socialization. Because anticipated racial discrimination involves concerns about future racial discrimination, it may prompt parents to focus on preparing their children for racial barriers rather than prompting positive messages about one’s racial group. The relations between personal and vicarious racial discrimination and cultural socialization differed based on parent gender and racial identity.

When parents had low personal racial discrimination, fathers with high public regard and all mothers had higher levels of cultural socialization than fathers with low public regard. Fathers with low public regard were more similar to the other parents when they experienced high personal racial discrimination. Fathers who have low public regard but have not personally experienced high levels of racial discrimination could have more concordance between their feelings about their racial group and how they perceive others feel about their own group which could contribute to them giving fewer positive messages about their own race to their children. Yet these fathers may engage in more cultural socialization when they experience racial discrimination in order to protect their children from racial barriers. Further, mothers with low public regard and low personal racial discrimination may still give more cultural socialization than these fathers due to their common role as primary socializers (White-Johnson et al., 2010). When mothers with high public regard experience high racial discrimination they may engage even more in cultural socialization in order to protect their children’s emotional and psychological development.

Among mothers with high private regard, as vicarious racial discrimination experiences were higher, so was cultural socialization. This finding is consistent with previous research that found parents with high private regard give higher levels of cultural socialization to their children, particularly when they personally experienced high levels of racial discrimination (Thomas et al., 2010). Yet, the finding extends this research by demonstrating that racial discrimination exposure is related to racial socialization even when the parent is not the target of a racial discrimination event.

Fathers with high racial centrality and mothers with low racial centrality gave more cultural socialization when they had high (vs low) vicarious racial discrimination. As previously discussed, an individual’s beliefs about race may influence how they interpret and react to race-related stressors (Thomas & Blackmon, 2015). Mothers and fathers may react differently to vicarious racial discrimination experiences based on their individual beliefs about race. Because of different types of racial discrimination experienced by men and women and the higher visibility of men as targets of racial discrimination in the media (Brownlow et al., 2019), high racial centrality fathers may be more likely to internalize their exposure to others’ racial discrimination experiences compared to high centrality mothers or low centrality fathers. The impact of this exposure may prompt them to engage in more cultural socialization with their children. Lastly, an external event may be needed for mothers with low racial centrality to engage in cultural socialization compared to parents with high racial centrality, as these mothers gave the least cultural socialization when they had low vicarious racial discrimination.

Limitations and Future Directions

The interpretations of the findings are limited as the study was cross-sectional. Future longitudinal research can better explore directionality. An online panel was used to recruit parents so the sample could underrepresent parents with limited access to the internet. Individuals who sign up to participate in online survey panels may also differ from the general population. In addition, because the data were collected online, it is possible that a mother and father were in the same household and that a few responses are not independent. The racial socialization measure was reported only by the parent. It will be beneficial in future studies to incorporate adolescents’ perceptions of received racial socialization. The current study used one item to measure parents’ anticipated racial discrimination. This measure could benefit by being expanded to incorporate items of parents’ anticipated racial discrimination for their adolescents. Parents could only choose between male and female for their own gender. To increase inclusivity, more options could be included. In addition, interactions between parent and child gender should be explored in future studies. Despite these limitations, the current study emphasizes the importance of parents’ racial identity in shaping their racial socialization in contexts of race-related stress.

Conclusions

This study explored whether racial identity and parent gender moderated the relations between race-related stressors and racial socialization and expands the literature on the role of parental characteristics and experiences in their racial socialization messages. It also contributes by examining parents’ anticipated and vicarious discrimination. No study, to our knowledge, examines the relations among parents’ racial identity, vicarious and anticipated racial discrimination, and racial socialization.

The findings highlight that type of parental race-related stressor does matter for racial socialization. All three stressors were related to preparation for bias, but only personal and vicarious racial discrimination were related to cultural socialization. The findings also underscore that mothers and fathers have different processes that influence their racial socialization practices. Among mothers we found more differences in racial socialization based on variations in their racial identity and levels of vicarious and anticipated racial discrimination while for fathers we found differences in racial socialization based on variations in their personal and vicarious racial discrimination and racial identity. It is possible that these different patterns are due to differing experiences of racial discrimination and childrearing.

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

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Conceptual model of the relation between race-related stressors and racial socialization moderated by racial identity and parent gender. Race-related stressors were correlated with each other and racial socialization messages were correlated with each other.

Table 2.

Descriptive Statistic of Study Variables.

N M S.D.
Personal Discrimination 539 2.61 1.16
Vicarious Discrimination 554 3.02 1.17
Anticipated Discrimination 560 5.49 1.65
Cultural Socialization 560 3.59 .97
Preparation for Bias 556 3.35 .94
Racial Centrality 560 4.74 1.14
Private Regard 561 6.18 .93
Public Regard 554 3.55 1.28
Parent Education 567 5.11 1.92
Income 558 7.40 4.31
Adolescent Gendera 565 .50 .50
Adolescent Age 567 14.53 2.16
Parent Genderb 567 .56 .50
Parent Age 567 27.68 8.89
Marriedc 567 .59 .49
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Note.

a

Dummy variable of adolescent gender, with male as reference group,

b

Dummy variable of parent gender, with male as reference group,

c

Dummy variable of marital status with not married as reference group.

Table 3.

Regression Coefficients

b S.E. β
Preparation for Bias ←
 Personal Racial Discrimination .14** .05 .17**
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination .18*** .05 .23***
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination .02 .03 .03
 Private Regard .14* .05 .14**
 Public Regard .05 .03 .06
 Racial Centrality .24*** .04 .28***
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Private Regard .02 .06 .03
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Private Regard .00 .05 .00
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Private Regard −.02 .03 −.04
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Public Regard .03 .04 .05
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Public Regard −.11* .04 −.18*
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Public Regard −.01 .02 −.03
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Racial Centrality −.11* .05 −.16*
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Racial Centrality .06 .05 .09
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Racial Centrality −.04 .02 −.08
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Parent Gender −.19* .09 −.12*
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Parent Gender .02 .09 .01
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Parent Gender .18** .06 .16**
 Private Regard × Parent Gender −.12 .10 −.06
 Public Regard × Parent Gender −.02 .07 −.01
 Racial Centrality × Parent Gender −.04 .07 −.02
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Private Regard × Parent Gender −.27* .12 −.16*
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Private Regard × Parent Gender .22 .11 .12
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Private Regard × Parent Gender .05 .06 .04
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Public Regard × Parent Gender .05 .08 .05
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Public Regard × Parent Gender −.07 .09 −.06
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Public Regard × Parent Gender −.06 .05 −.08
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Racial Centrality × Parent Gender .21* .09 .15*
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Racial Centrality × Parent Gender −.19* .09 −.14*
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Racial Centrality × Parent Gender −.02 .05 −.02
Cultural Socialization ←
 Cultural Socialization Personal Racial Discrimination .12* .05 .14*
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination .11* .05 .13*
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination .00 .03 .00
 Private Regard .23*** .06 .23***
 Public Regard .14*** .03 .18***
 Racial Centrality .27*** .04 .32***
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Private Regard −.01 .06 −.06
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Private Regard .05 .06 .06
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Private Regard −.00 .04 −.00
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Public Regard .01 .02 .01
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Public Regard −.04 .05 −.06
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Public Regard −.01 .03 .03
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Racial Centrality −.06 .05 −.08
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Racial Centrality .02 .05 .03
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Racial Centrality −.03 .03 −.06
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Parent Gender −.10 .09 −.06
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Parent Gender −.10 .09 −.01
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Parent Gender .12 .07 .11
 Private Regard × Parent Gender −.10 .04 −.05
 Public Regard × Parent Gender −.01 .07 −.00
 Racial Centrality × Parent Gender −.04 .08 −.02
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Private Regard × Parent Gender −.24 .12 −.14
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Private Regard × Parent Gender .26* .13 .14*
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Private Regard × Parent Gender .01 .07 .01
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Public Regard × Parent Gender .20* .09 .17*
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Public Regard × Parent Gender −.15 .09 −.13
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Public Regard × Parent Gender −.09 .06 −.11
 Personal Racial Discrimination × Racial Centrality × Parent Gender .25* .10 .18*
 Vicarious Racial Discrimination × Racial Centrality × Parent Gender −.23* .09 .16*
 Anticipated Racial Discrimination × Racial Centrality × Parent Gender −.07 .05 −.07
Open in a new tab

Note.

*

p < .05,

**

p < .01,

***

p < .001.

Public Significance Statement:

The messages African American mothers and fathers give adolescents about race are shaped by their own experiences with racial discrimination, as well as their observations and fears of racial discrimination. In addition, parents’ message about race differed by their racial beliefs and gender.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grant, P2CHD042849, Population Research Center, awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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