Let’s talk about race and ethnicity: Cultural socialization, parenting quality, and ethnic identity development

Abstract

Parental cultural socialization and general parenting quality are important predictors of ethnic identity (EI) development in adolescents. However, recent research on transracial adoptive families suggests parents and adolescents may have differing perceptions of parental cultural socialization efforts. This study examines differences in mother and adolescent reports of cultural socialization – both racial and ethnic socialization – and the extent to which mother and adolescent reports relate to EI development (clarity, pride, and engagement), after accounting for general parenting quality, in a US sample of 120 internationally adopted Korean American adolescents. This study also examines whether mother reports of cultural socialization moderate the relationship between adolescent reports of cultural socialization and EI development. Results indicate that mothers and adolescents disagree on levels of racial and ethnic socialization, and mother and adolescent reports of ethnic socialization independently related to EI-Clarity, -Pride, and -Engagement. Mother report of racial socialization was also negatively related to EI-Pride. Finally, mother report of ethnic socialization significantly moderated the relationship between adolescent report of ethnic socialization and EI-Clarity.

Keywords:

• cultural socialization
• ethnic identity
• parenting

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported in part by a NIMH K-01 award [MH070740] to Richard M Lee, University of Minnesota. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.