The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between early familial racial/ethnic socialization and the self-efficacy and academic achievement of African American
children during the elementary years, and across the transition to middle school. In particular, the mediatory effects of self-efficacy were examined longitudinally. The Early Childhood
Longitudinal Study Kindergarten class of 1998 - 1999 (ECLS-K) was used to examine the impact of kindergarteners' at-home exposure to racial/ethnic socialization on levels of school-related
self-efficacy and academic achievement of the same children in fifth and eighth grades. African American students (N = 3224) from this nationally representative dataset were a part of this
study. Albert Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (also referred to as the Social Learning Theory) with particular focus on his conceptualization of Self-Efficacy, was used as a guiding
framework for this study. Analyses were conducted using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results showed that there was a significant and positive relationship between early childhood
racial/ethnic socialization and the later academic achievement of pre-adolescent and adolescent African American school children in both fifth and eighth grades. However, the results also
indicated that that self-efficacy had only minimal and insignificant mediating effects on the relationship between racial/ethnic socialization and academic achievement. The implications from
these findings include impetus for marriage and family therapists and other practitioners and educators to include more family-centered and ethnically/racially relevant strategies and
interventions to support families faced with school-based difficulties. Additional implications for therapists, educators, and researchers, were discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2014. / October 22, 2014. / Academic Achievement, African American, Ethnic Socialization, Racial Socialization, Self-Efficacy / Includes bibliographical references. / Lenore McWey, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ming Cui, Committee Member; Wayne Denton, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_252808 |
| Contributors | Brantley, Cicely W. (Cicely Walker) (authoraut), McWey, Lenore M. (professor directing dissertation), Mason, Patrick L. (university representative), Cui, Ming, 1971- (committee member), Denton, Wayne (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Human Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Family and Child Sciences (degree granting department) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (87 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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