Examining changes in African American mothers' racial socialization patterns during adolescence: Racial discrimination as a predictor

Compounding effects of stress on diet, physical activity, and wellbeing among African American parents: a qualitative study to inform the LEADS health promotion trial

The purpose of the study was to conduct in-depth qualitative interviews to understand the lived experiences of African American parents of overweight adolescents who had previously participated in a family-based weight loss program and to utilize these insights to inform the essential elements of the LEADS trial, an integrated resilience stress management and health promotion intervention. Participants (N = 30) were African American parents and/or caregivers (96.7% female; Mage = 49.73, SD = 10.88; MBMI = 37.63, SD = 8.21) of adolescents with overweight and/or obesity. Interviews were transcribed and coded using inductive and deductive approaches for themes by two independent coders. Inter-rater reliability was acceptable (r = 0.70-0.80) and discrepancies were resolved to 100% agreement. Prominent stress themes included caregiver responsibilities, work, interpersonal family conflict, and physical and emotional consequences of chronic stress. Participants also noted decreases in physical activity and poor food choices due to stress. Coping mechanisms included prayer/meditation, church social support, and talking with family/partner. Results highlight the importance of mitigating stress among African American parents through stress management and cultural/familial resilience approaches to increase the likelihood of engagement in behavioral strategies in health promotion programs. Future studies should assess the utility of incorporating stress management components and health promotion techniques to improve health outcomes among African American families.

Place-Based Developmental Research: Conceptual and Methodological Advances in Studying Youth Development in Context

Scientists have, for some time, recognized that development unfolds in numerous settings, including families, schools, neighborhoods, and organized and unorganized activity settings. Since the turn of the 20th century, the body of mainstream neighborhood effects scholarship draws heavily from the early 20th century Chicago School of Sociology frameworks and have been situating development in neighborhood contexts and working to identify the structures and processes via which neighborhoods matter for a range of developmental outcomes, especially achievement, behavioral and emotional problems, and sexual activity. From this body of work, two new areas of developmental scholarship are emerging. Both areas are promising for advancing an understanding of child development in context. First, cultural-developmental neighborhood researchers are advancing neighborhood effects research that explicitly recognizes the ways that racial, ethnic, cultural, and immigrant social positions matter for neighborhood environments and for youths' developmental demands, affordances, experiences, and competencies. This body of work substantially expands the range of developmental outcomes examined in neighborhood effects scholarship to recognize normative physical, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, social, and cultural competencies that have largely been overlooked in neighborhood effects scholarship that espoused a more color-blind developmental approach. Second, activity space neighborhood researchers are recognizing that residential neighborhoods have important implications for broader activity spaces-or the set of locations and settings to which youth are regularly exposed, including, for example, schools, work, organized activities, and hang-outs. They are using newer technologies and geographic frameworks to assess exposure to residential neighborhood and extra-neighborhood environments. These perspectives recognize that time (i.e., from microtime to mesotime) and place are critically bound and that exposures can be operationalized at numerous levels of the ecological system (i.e., from microsystems to macrosystems). These frameworks address important limitations of prior development in context scholarship by addressing selection and exposure. Addressing selection involves recognizing that families have some degree of choice when selecting into settings and variables that predict families' choices (e.g., income) also predict development. Considering exposure involves recognizing that different participants or residents experience different amounts of shared and nonshared exposures, resulting in both under-and over-estimation of contextual effects. Activity space scholars incorporate exposure to the residential neighborhood environments, but also to other locations and settings to which youth are regularly exposed, like schools, after-school settings, work, and hang-outs. Unfortunately, the cultural-development and activity space streams, which have both emerged from early 20th century work on neighborhood effects on development, have been advancing largely independently. Thus, the overarching aim of this monograph is to integrate scholarship on residential neighborhoods, cultural development, and activity spaces to advance a framework that can support a better understanding of development in context for diverse groups. In Chapters I and II we present the historical context of the three streams of theoretical, conceptual, and methodological research. We also advance a comprehensive cultural-developmental activity space framework for studying development in context among children, youth, and families that are ethnically, racially, and culturally heterogeneous. This framework actively recognized diversity in ethnic, racial, immigrant, and socioeconomic social positions. In Chapters III-V we advance specific features of the framework, focusing on: (1) the different levels of nested and nonnested ecological systems that can be captured and operationalized with activity space methods, (2) the different dimensions of time and exposures or experiences that can be captured and operationalized by activity space methods, and (3) the importance of settings structures and social processes for identifying underlying mechanisms of contextual effects on development. Structures are setting features related to the composition and spatial arrangement of people and institutions (e.g., socioeconomic disadvantage, ethnic/racial compositions). Social processes represent the collective social dynamics that take place in settings, like social interactions, group activities, experiences with local institutions, mechanisms of social control, or shared beliefs. In Chapter VI, we highlight a range of methodological and empirical exemplars from the United States that are informed by our comprehensive cultural-developmental activity space framework. These exemplars feature both quantitative and qualitative methods, including method mixing. These exemplars feature both quantitative and qualitative methods, including method mixing. The exemplars also highlight the application of the framework across four different samples from populations that vary in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, age, socioeconomic status (SES), geographic region, and urbanicity. They capture activity space characteristics and features in a variety of ways, in addition to incorporating family shared and nonshared activity space exposures. Finally, in Chapter VII we summarize the contributions of the framework for advancing a more comprehensive science of development in context, one that better realizes major developmental theories emphasizing persons, processes, contexts, and time. Additionally, we offer a place-based, culturally informed developmental research agenda to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population.

Family and peer ethnic-racial socialization in adolescents' everyday life: A daily transactional model with ethnic-racial identity and discrimination

There is limited research on ethnic-racial socialization outside the family context (e.g., in peer groups). Using two-week, daily data from 177 U.S. ethnic-racial minority 9th graders in 2017-2020 (Mage  = 14.48 years old; 51% females; 52% Black, 20% Latinx, 10% Asian American, 6% Native American, and 12% Other), this study tested a transactional model of family and peer ethnic-racial socialization, identity, and discrimination. Bidirectional associations were observed between family and peer cultural socialization across days (βs = .09-.10). Peer but not family cultural socialization promoted adolescents' ethnic-racial identity on the next day (βs = .07-.10). Ethnic-racial discrimination predicted greater next-day family ethnic-racial socialization (cultural socialization, preparation for bias; βs = .08-.11), whereas family and peer ethnic-racial socialization predicted next-day discrimination (βs = .11-.18). The differential roles of family and peer ethnic-racial socialization are discussed.

Who, what, and where? How racial composition and gender influence the association between racial discrimination and racial socialization messages

OBJECTIVES

This study investigated the moderating roles of contextual racial composition (neighborhood, school, and job) and parent-adolescent gender dyads on the relation between familial racial discrimination experiences and parental racial socialization messages.

METHOD

The analytic sample included 565 Black parents (Mage = 44.7; 56% mothers, 44% fathers) who reported on their personal and adolescents' racial discrimination experiences and their communication of cultural socialization and preparation for bias messages.

RESULTS

Regression analyses in a structural equation modeling framework (path analyses) revealed that parents who personally experienced more racial discrimination or were in workplaces with more Black people communicated higher cultural socialization messages. They communicated high preparation for bias messages when reporting personal and adolescent racial discrimination. Racial discrimination experiences were positively related to preparation for bias messages among parents who worked in jobs with fewer Black people but were unrelated among parents working with more Black people. Multiple-group analyses indicated no gender differences in these associations.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings demonstrate that Black parents vary in their racial socialization messages based on their family's contexts and experiences. The findings highlight the importance of parents' work contexts for adolescent development and family processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

"They Just Keep Coming": A Study of How Anti-Black Racial Violence Informs Racial Grief and Resistance Among Black Mothers

Scholars have begun to address how exposure to vicarious racial violence influences stress and coping processes among Black families in the U.S. Yet, fewer scholars have considered the importance of racial grief as a component of the coping process. The current study drew upon semi-structured interview data from 31 Black mothers in the U.S. (25-52 years; M _age = 35 years) to explore how mothers processed and responded to vicarious anti-Black racial violence. We used consensual qualitative research methods and identified the following themes: (a) recognizing the endemic nature of racial violence, (b) feeling frozen in fear after a new case of racial violence, and (c) transforming grief into grievance as a route to racial justice. The findings contextualize Black mothers' concerns about the racial violence that they and their children might experience during their lifetime, and how they channel this grief into actionable change against racial injustice. Authors discuss strengths-based ways to frame the role of grief and loss in the context of racism.

The Impact of Racism on the Health and Wellbeing of Black Indigenous and Other Youth of Color (BIPOC Youth)

Black, Indigenous, and other Youth of Color (BIPOC youth) experience racism from a young age. These experiences have both immediate and long-term impacts on their health and wellbeing. Systemic racism contributes to the inequitable distribution of health resources and other social determinants of health, creating barriers to accessing care. Substance use disorders and sexual/nonsexual risk behaviors have been linked to experiences of racism in BIPOC youth. The legacy of generational racial trauma can frame behaviors and attitudes in the present, undermining health and survival in this group. BIPOC youth also face difficulties navigating spheres characterized as white spaces. Ethnic-racial socialization may promote resilience and help with coping in the context of racial stress. While many professional health organizations have embraced dismantling racism, a shift in the narrative on racial values will be critical for preventing adversity and achieving health equity for BIPOC youth.

Embracing Race, Resisting Oppression: African American Parents as Experienced Guides for Navigating Racial Oppression: Dismantling Systems of Racism and Oppression during Adolescence

This study examined how discrimination experiences, beliefs, and coping in middle adolescence contributed to heterogeneity in African American parent-adolescent relationship (PAR) profiles three years later. Data were from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study in which 589 African American caregivers (92% female; M_age  = 39.15, SD = 6.72; range = 27-74 years old) were interviewed when youth were in 8th and 11th grades. We used previously identified profiles of ethnic-racial socialization, general parenting practices, and relationship quality: No-nonsense High Socializers, Indulgent Average Socializers, Unengaged Silent Socializers, and Authoritative Cultural Socializers. Results indicated that parents' discrimination experiences, racial coping self-efficacy, and racial coping socialization when youth were in the 8th grade predicted membership in PAR profiles three years later controlling for youth gender, parent marital status, and family socioeconomic status.

A 21st Century Take on Racial-Ethnic Socialization: Patterns of Competency and Content among Diverse Parents of Color

Racial-ethnic socialization is a process where parents pass beliefs and behaviors to their children, including critical reflections on race and racism. Currently, it is not well known across racial/ethnic groups in the U.S how parents’ socialization competency (confidence, skills, and stress surrounding the delivery of racial-ethnic socialization) coalesces with the frequency with which they deliver different types of socialization messages (socialization content). The current study utilizes latent profile analysis to examine racial-ethnic socialization content and competency patterns among 203 Black, 194 Latinx, and 188 Asian American parents (n = 585, Mage = 44.46, SD = 9.14, 59.70% mothers) with children 10–18 years old (Mage = 14.30, SD = 2.49, 50.3% female). Furthermore, we relate profiles to sociodemographic and relevant factors posited to impact socialization competency and content delivery, namely, discrimination and critical consciousness dimensions (reflection, motivation, action). We observed three parental profiles: Less Prepared Stressed Low Frequency (LPSLF; n = 285), Prepared Low Stress Frequent (PLSF; n = 204), and Prepared Stressed Frequent (PSF; n = 96) socializers. Profile differences emerged on parental and youth sociodemographic factors, lifetime discrimination exposure, and each parental critical consciousness dimension. This study lays a foundation for the combined study of racial-ethnic socialization competence and content in diverse groups, a practice crucial to understanding 21st century parenting.