Work

When Kindness Is Not Enough: Pākehā Parenting Socialisation Practices for Cultural Connectedness and Pride

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Pākehā children’s cultural identities are influenced by their parent’s cultural socialisation practices. This article focuses on the ways family members (N = 4019) socialised their Pākehā children for cultural connectedness and pride, or not, in Aotearoa, New Zealand. We mapped our analytical codes alongside Hughes et al.’s (2006) Ethnic-Racial Socialisation framework (cultural socialisation, egalitarianism and silence about race, promotion of mistrust, and preparation for bias) to better understand the underlying motivations for family cultural socialisation. While approximately 47.6% of Pākehā family respondents articulated positive cultural socialisation practices, 33% of Pākehā family respondents refused to answer the questions and 18.6% struggled to articulate the ways they encouraged their children developing positive cultural identities. This particular article highlights the four ways 18.6% of Pākehā family members avoided talking about their child’s cultural identity and cultural backgrounds: by wrestling with, resisting, revolting against or re-storying their cultural identities.

Source: New Zealand journal of psychology

DOI: 10.63146/001c.141649

Authors: Esther Fitzpatrick, Melinda Webber, Abby Madden-Smith

Institution: University of Auckland

Language: English

Topic: Racial and Ethnic Identity Research

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

OpenAlex ID: W4411917502