Children’s ethnic–racial identity and mothers’ cultural socialization are protective for young Latine children’s mental health

Latine children are at heightened risk of experiencing internalizing behaviors, and youths with internalizing behaviors in early childhood tend to continue to experience internalizing behaviors as well as poor health in adolescence (Jamnik & DiLalla, 2019). Thus, there is a critical public health need to identify both the early sociocultural risk factors that contribute to the development of internalizing behaviors and the protective factors that mitigate these risks among Latine children. Sociocultural factors can be positive and protective (e.g., health care, identity) or negative and sources of risk (e.g., poverty, unsafe neighborhoods). Mexican-origin children of adolescent mothers may face various forms of sociocultural risk within their family context that could affect their internalizing behaviors. Yet sociocultural protective factors (e.g., ethnic–racial socialization and ethnic–racial identity [ERI]) may also play a moderating role in children’s lives. During early childhood, youths become more aware of their sociocultural worlds and develop their ERI (Williams et al., 2020). Further, caregivers’ cultural socialization (i.e., caregivers’ efforts to teach children about their cultural background; Hughes et al., 2006) has also been found to be an important protective process in Latine families.

The authors of a study recently publishedopens in new window in Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology  examined whether various sociocultural risk factors (i.e., mothers’ engagement in risky behaviors, mothers’ ethnic discrimination experiences, grandmothers’ ethnic discrimination experiences, and family economic hardship) were associated with children’s internalizing behaviors and whether sociocultural protective factors (i.e., ethnic–racial socialization and ERI) buffered these risks. One hundred eighty-two Mexican-origin 5-year-old children of adolescent mothers, their mothers, and their grandmothers participated in the study. Findings indicated that children’s positive ERI attitudes were protective. For example, grandmothers’ ethnic discrimination experiences predicted more child internalizing behaviors when children’s positive ERI attitude level was low, but this relation was not significant when children’s positive ERI attitude level was high. Mothers’ cultural socialization was also protective. When the level of mothers’ cultural socialization was low, mothers’ engagement in risky behaviors predicted more child internalizing behaviors; this relation was not significant when the level of mothers’ cultural socialization was high. Economic hardship predicted more internalizing behaviors in children, and no variables moderated this relation.

These results highlight that young children are affected by observing or hearing about stressful discrimination experienced by loved ones who share their ethnic–racial background. Few studies focus on the effects of grandmothers’ racialized experiences on their grandchildren, and this new study’s findings underscore that they are important. Further, ERI is often a focus in adolescence, but this study highlights that children’s ERI is an important protective factor in early childhood. In addition, mothers’ cultural socialization efforts also emerged as a protective factor. Given that this process involves engaging in activities and discussions to teach children about their ethnicity and race specifically, existing work has tended to focus on cultural socialization in studies that involve cultural experiences, such as discrimination and ERI. However, cultural socialization in the current study was also protective in other family processes (i.e., mothers’ engagement in risky behaviors and children’s internalizing behaviors).

The results highlight that mothers’ engagement in risky behaviors, grandmothers’ ethnic discrimination experiences, and family economic hardship have an effect on the experience of internalizing behaviors in children. However, in some of these relations, children’s positive ERI attitudes and mothers’ cultural socialization are protective. In future research and programming, consideration of the roles of individual, family, and cultural factors will be important for addressing and reducing children’s internalizing behaviors in early childhood.

This article is in the Social Psychology and Social Processes topic area.

Hughes, D., Rodriguez, J., Smith, E. P., Johnson, D. J., Stevenson, H. C., & Spicer, P. (2006). Parents’ ethnic-racial socialization practices: A review of research and directions for future study. Developmental Psychology, 42(5), 747–770. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.42.5.747opens in new window

Jamnik, M. R., & DiLalla, L. F. (2019). Health outcomes associated with internalizing problems in early childhood and adolescence. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, Article 60. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00060opens in new window

Williams, C. D., Bell, A. D., DeLaney, E. N., Umaña-Taylor, A. J., Jahromi, L. B., & Updegraff, K. A. (2023). Children’s ethnic–racial identity and mothers’ cultural socialization as protective in relations between sociocultural risk factors and children’s internalizing behaviors. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000619opens in new window

Williams, C. D., Byrd, C. M., Quintana, S. M., Anicama, C., Kiang, L., Umaña-Taylor, A. J., Calzada, E. J., Gautier, M. P., Ejesi, K., Tuitt, N. T., Martinez-Fuentes, S., White, L., Marks, A., Rogers, L. O., & Whitesell, N. (2020). A lifespan model of ethnic-racial identity. Research in Human Development, 17(2–3), 99–129. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427609.2020.1831882opens in new window

Chelsea Derlan Williams, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research focuses on ethnic–racial identity; ethnic–racial socialization; discrimination and colorism; and cultural experiences among Latine, Black, and Multiracial youths and families. Her work is aimed at understanding links between cultural experiences and outcomes, as well as how to create culturally affirming spaces, especially during early and middle childhood.

Ashlynn Danyel Bell, MS, is a PhD student at Virginia Commonwealth University, as well as a research specialist for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests center on trauma and health, specifically focusing on the social and psychological contributors of sexual violence and gendered racism for Black women and femmes.

Eryn N. DeLaney, PhD, is a sport psychologist embedded within athletics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research focuses on ethnic–racial identity, interpersonal trauma, and discrimination and their links with psychological and health outcomes among college individuals with historically marginalized identities.

Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor, PhD, is the Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Professor of Education at Harvard University. Through her research and interventions, she seeks to apply developmental science in a manner that reduces ethnoracial disparities in psychological and academic adjustment and, in turn, promotes social justice. She developed the Identity Project, a school-based ethnic-racial identity development curriculum, which has now been culturally adapted and tested in six additional countries.

Laudan B. Jahromi, PhD, is a professor of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focuses on social-emotional and academic outcomes for children and families with complex support needs, including children with and without disabilities, with an emphasis on the development of emotion self-regulation, parent–child coregulation, parents’ psychosocial well-being, and family and cultural strengths and resources.

Kimberly Updegraff, PhD, is a professor in human development and family science at Purdue University. Her research aims to address disparities experienced by Latinx youths and families through research and rigorous testing of culturally relevant prevention programs.