A Conversation Guide to Support Color-Conscious Racial Socialization among White Parent-Child Dyads
Year: 2021
Type: preprint
Abstract: Family discussions may be an important context for shaping White children’s developing racial attitudes, yet the majority of White parents in the U.S. report that they either de-emphasize or avoid discussions of race and racism with their White children. The current study presents a qualitative analysis of racial messages communicated during a guided discussion task designed to scaffold color-conscious conversations about vignettes depicting interpersonal racism. Participants, recruited from a Midwestern U.S. city between 2018 and 2020, included 87 self-identified White parents (91.5% women, 8.5% men; Mage = 42.57 years, SD = 5.14) and their parent-identified White children (ages 8–12; 53% girls, 47% boys; Mage = 8.95 years, SD = 1.16). Most parents were highly educated, middle-class or upper-middle-class, married, and liberal or liberal-leaning. Findings revealed that many parents and children used racial language and endorsed color-conscious messages, such as acknowledging that racial prejudice had occurred in the vignettes. However, some dyads redirected the conversation away from race or made external attributions for racist behavior rather than attributing responsibility to White perpetrators. Together, these findings suggest that structured scaffolding may support more explicit conversations about racism in White families while also highlighting variability in how parents and children interpret and discuss racist behavior.
Authors: Sylvia Perry, Jamie L Abaied, Allison Louise Skinner, Deborah Jean Wu, Sara Waters, Meghan George, Lauryn Hoard
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3166294842