Doctor of Philosophy / Ethnic Racial Socialization (ERS) is the process Black parents utilize to convey attitudes and beliefs about the meaning of race and ethnicity, teach their children what it means to be an ethnic/racial minority and equip their children with the skills to cope with racial discrimination (Neblett, Cooper, Banks, et. al, 2013). This process includes culture specific messages, artifacts and modeled behavior that provide a toolbox of which Black children can pull from when enduring racial experiences. Research suggests ERS has the ability to act as a protective factor against negative outcomes, such as low self-esteem, anxiety and depression among minority children (Reynold and Gonzales-Backen, 2017). In this study, I examined how particular experiences influence how Black fathers engage in ERS. This qualitative study explored how Black fathers' race-related social experiences shape their ERS processes through semi-structured interviewing. This study was informed by Critical Race Theory and Extended Family Systems Theory. Grounded Theory methodology was utilized. In this study, I aimed to address the following overarching research question: How do Black fathers' social experiences shape the way they engage in ERS with their children? Twenty-two participants from fifteen states and the District of Columbia participated in this study. The data from this study suggests that fathers' race-related social experiences regarding racism and discrimination shapes their worldviews. In turn, fathers' worldviews influence the messages transmitted to their children about living in a racially charged environment. Results from this study indicate a need to examine family processes in Black families within a context where race and racism have a more central role (James, Fine, and Rudy, 2018). Through the emphasis of Black fathers' situated context, this research highlights the social context of fathers with differing experiences and worldviews that all contribute to the ERS process. This research has implications for the field and implications for families and practitioners who work with children and families.

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The salience of racial socialization among African American families has received considerable attention in the literature; however, few scholars have examined how the process of racial socialization unfolds in families with very young children. This study investigated how African American mothers of preschool-age children approached the process of racial socialization. I interviewed African American mothers who were at least age 18 (N=12) with biological children between the ages of three and five to explore the following: (a) the strategies and messages used during the racial socialization process, (b) how mothers' perceptions of colorism influenced the content of messages, and (c) mothers' perceptions of external forces that influenced their children's racial socialization experiences. I applied an integrated Black feminist-child development theoretical framework and grounded theory methodology to examine how African American mothers negotiated intersectionality when racially socializing their preschool-age children. Four major themes emerged from data analysis: motherwork as conscientization, bidirectional process in maternal racial socialization, skin tone politics in maternal racial socialization, and defining African American motherhood. From these themes, I concluded that mothers preferred to use cultural and egalitarian strategies and messages with their preschool-age children. Maternal racial socialization has a bidirectional component that involves mother-child conversations about race that occur when the child notices differences in people based on skin color, a race-related situation occurs, or the child initiates it. Colorism did not directly influence the content of racial socialization messages but did inform maternal interactions with extended family members. For African American women, motherhood is characterized by societal expectations and pressures for African American children. / Ph. D.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen S. Myers-Bowman / Rudabeh Nazarinia-Roy / Racial identity of mixed race individuals is important to understand because of the growing proportion of the population with parents from different racial groups. Having more than one racial heritage has a direct impact on how these children are seen by others as well as how they understand and encounter the world around them. Parents socialize their children in matters of race and discrimination that can impact their racial identity development, which is a component of their overall identity development. The aim of this study was explore how multiracial children are socialized and the impact of that socialization on racial identity formation from a heuristic perspective. Heuristic inquiry is a facet of phenomenology that seeks to understand the researcher’s experience of the phenomenon; therefore, I provided data on my experiences with raising a mixed-race child in a monoracial family. Two other families experiencing the same phenomenon were also interviewed. Themes related to racial profiling, parental perception of the mixed race child’s personality, skin tone, level of respect, and parenting were identified through the five-step analysis process recommended by Moustakas for heuristic inquiry, including immersion, incubation, illumination, explication, and creative synthesis. This study highlights relevant aspects in the lives of mixed-race children, how that impacts the way society views mixed-race individuals, and how those individuals encounter the world around them.

This dissertation argues that cultural capital is self-reinforcing in nature. This conjecture is explored through the analysis of sixth-four semi-structured interviews with black and white middle class parents. The first phase of the analysis investigates how the use of one form of non-elite cultural capital, racial socialization, varies among middle class black parents and how it is related to their deployment of elite forms of parental cultural capital. Throughout the dissertation elite parental cultural capital is operationalized as parents' educational aspirations, parental encouragement of academic engagement and promotion of the work ethic. Next, the relationship between the use of elite parental cultural capital and adolescents' academic achievement is evaluated for black and white middle class families. Ultimately the link between the use of non-elite cultural capital and racial differences in academic outcomes is examined. The results suggest that there may be subtle differences in cultural socialization practices among black parents in this sample, which are apparently correlated with their use of elite cultural capital. This implies that non-elite cultural capital has the potential to reinforce elite cultural capital. However, this appears to have only a weak relationship to the achievement of black adolescents or to the racial achievement gap. / African and African American Studies

abstract: The overarching goal of this dissertation was to contribute to the field’s understanding of young children’s development of ethnic-racial identification. In particular, Study 1 presented the adaptation of three measures that are developmentally appropriate for assessing young children’s ethnic-racial attitudes, ethnic-racial centrality, and ethnic-racial knowledge, and tested the psychometric properties of each measure. Findings from Study 1 provided limited initial support for the construct validity and reliability of the measures; importantly, there were many differences in the descriptives and measurement properties based on the language in which children completed the measures. In addition to measurement of ethnic-racial identification, Study 2 used the measures developed in Study 1 and tested whether Mexican-origin mothers’ adaptive cultural characteristics (i.e., ERI affirmation, ethnic-racial centrality, and involvement in Mexican culture) when children were 3 years of age predicted greater cultural socialization efforts with children at 4 years of age and, in turn, children’s ethnic-racial identification (i.e., children’s ethnic-racial attitudes, ethnic-racial centrality, ethnic-racial knowledge, and identification as Mexican) at 5 years of age. Furthermore, children’s characteristics (i.e., gender and skin tone) were tested as moderators of these processes. Findings supported expected processes from mothers’ adaptive cultural characteristics to children’s ethnic-racial identification via mothers’ cultural socialization across boys and girls, however, relations varied by children’s skin tone. Findings highlight the important role of children’s individual characteristics in cultural socialization and young children’s developing ethnic-racial identification over time. Overall, given the paucity of studies that have examined ethnic-racial identification among young children, the results from Study 1 and Study 2 have the potential to stimulate growth of knowledge in this area. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Family and Human Development 2016