Hands up, now what?: Black families' reactions to racial socialization interventions

This research summary can be incorporated into a lecture or shared with students as a reading to demonstrate how psychological science explores the diversity of human experience. This resource can also be used to encourage students to identify the major components of a research study (i.e., the hypothesis or study question, sample, method, and findings). Students can be asked to identify potential limitations of the study and encouraged to discuss the implications for our understanding of human behavior. Keywords highlight how concepts within and across pillars are incorporated into a single research study.

Racial socialization is the developmental process by which children learn about the positive and negative aspects of racialized experience through the verbal and nonverbal messages transmitted by their caregivers. Positive racial socialization can help to buffer the negative effects of racial bias on youth. Black parents often shoulder the burden of having to prepare their children to face racial stressors without support or instruction. Anderson and her colleagues set out to study the potential benefits of community interventions aimed at promoting racial socialization and psychological wellness. They studied two programs. The EMBRace program (Engaging, Managing, and Bonding through Race) specifically encouraged the development of specific racial socialization skills. The Family Learning Villages also offered opportunities to enhance racial socialization while also helping parents to advocate on their children’s behalf against school-based racial stressors and build relationships with other parents. Ten families with children ages 10–14 and at least one African American parent participated in EMBRace and completed a pretest and posttest measuring racial stress, coping ability, and other well-being constructs. Participants found that EMBRace was a safe space to share intimate feelings about their stress and most parents changed the way they communicated with their child about racial socialization and race. Thirty-seven parents with children ranging in age from 6 months to 16 years participated in the FLV program and completed pre- and post-test measures. After completing the program, all parents committed to participate in some form of advocacy on behalf of their children and planned to affirm their child at least a few times a week or almost every day.

Anderson, R. E., Metzger, I., Applewhite, K., Sawyer, B., Jackson, W., Flores, S., Majors, A., McKenny, M. C., Carter, R. (2020). Hands up, now what?: Black families’ reactions to racial socialization interventions. Journal of Youth Development, 15(5), 93–109. https://doi: 10.5195/jyd.2020.755opens in new window

Race, Development, Racial Socialization, Racism

The development of resources to broaden diversity and representation in the teaching of high school psychology resources is an APA Committee of Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools initiative supported by funding from the American Psychological Foundation David and Carol Myers Fund. This resource was developed by Eric Castro, Shawn C.T. Jones, PhD, Allyn Olsen, and Catherine Sanderson, PhD.