Although ethnic minority adolescents face many daunting challenges during their transition to adulthood, many draw on unique cultural strengths to survive and thrive. Racial socialization, the process by which parents and other socialization agents give adolescents race-related messages, is one of the most important of these cultural strengths. The main aim of this Social and Behavioral Sciences Minority Post-Doctoral Fellowship research and training activity is to increase understanding of processes associated with the transmission and receipt of racial socialization messages. The prospective project would draw on the resources of New York University's Center for Research on Culture, Development and Education (CRCDE, currently funded by a grant from National Science Foundation). The center's diverse collection of scholars and focus on mixed methods will allow for the exploration of both quantitative and qualitative data in the study of the racial socialization process. One of the largest unresolved questions about racial socialization concerns how parent?s messages are communicated to and received by adolescents. Racial socialization studies have largely used either parent or child reports of racial socialization, a practice that precludes analysis of the relation between parent and child reports of racial socialization or a thorough examination of the reasons behind successful communication of messages. These discrepancies between parent and child reports of racial socialization are noteworthy and merit further investigation for at least three reasons. First, an understanding of the discrepancies can be used to help parents to talk to their children about race in ways that enhance youths' identity and self-esteem. Ineffective communication about race and ethnicity on the part of parents may undermine the protective functions such communication is intended to serve. Second, advancement in this literature may help mental health professionals and community leaders to further refine interventions and social programs that help parents to talk to their children about race in productive ways. This research will lead to evidence-based interventions and programs that improve mental health and academic outcomes for ethnic minority adolescents. Third, explaining the gap will link the racial socialization literature with a broader socialization literature that has already grappled with discrepancies between parent and child reports of socialization. An initial goal of the proposed research is to explore how parent and adolescent reports differ on three aspects of racial socialization: messages stressing group differences and racial bias; messages that teach children about their culture; and messages stressing distrust between racial groups. The proposed research will also examine how racial socialization is affected by the broader context of parenting, including parenting style and family functioning. Finally, the project seeks to broaden understanding of the racial socialization process by examining the full range of contexts in which race socialization occurs. Increasing knowledge of the race socialization process will inform interventions that promote healthy conversations about race between parents and children. During the time at the CRDCE, the fellow will collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of scholars, including many minority researchers. The proposed activity consists of research projects, seminars, and coursework that will enhance the fellow?s understanding of ecological and developmental influences on the race socialization process. The fellow will also enhance his knowledge of research methods by taking courses and consulting with scholars on qualitative, mixed, and observational methods. The fellowship will also allow for the potential fellow to work on at least three first authored publications and to work on other papers at the center. The fellow's time at the center will provide increased preparation for a tenure track position at a research university.
