Racial and ethnic disparities in academic attainment adversely impact the future prospects of ethnic minority individuals, and threaten the vitality of the national talent pool. The importance of closing the achievement gap is underscored by estimations that the majority of school-aged persons in the U.S. will be non-white or Hispanic by the year 2035. Decades of research reveal that ethnic and racial discrimination, including negative racial experiences with teachers and peers in school, seriously undermines academic adjustment. The proposed research will explore how socio-culturally specific parenting practices thought to buffer the effects of discrimination on development may facilitate achievement among ethnic and racial minority youth. Specifically, this research will examine how the interplay between parental ethnic-racial socialization at home, and perceived discrimination at school, shapes youths' motivation and academic trajectories. This objective will be achieved by working with the scholars, resources and data at the New York University's Center for Research on Culture, Development and Education (CRCDE). As a postdoctoral fellow at the Center, the fellow will take courses and participate in seminars and colloquia to expand their knowledge of relevant psychological constructs, statistical techniques and research methodology. The fellow will also collaborate with leading scholars to hone her research, writing and presentation skills. Working with Dr. Hughes at the CRCDE is pivotal to the training of the fellow; Dr. Hughes is a pioneering researcher in the area of ethnic-racial socialization, and under her direct mentorship the fellow will learn to apply mixed methods and advanced quantitative techniques to examine the impact of racial and cultural constructs on academic adjustment.
Intellectual Merit. Ethnic-racial socialization, the process through which parents convey messages to children about ethnicity and race, plays a crucial role in the development of minority youth. Some dimensions of parental messages (e.g., transmitting cultural pride, instilling egalitarianism) are found to facilitate positive identity, self-esteem, efficacy, and motivation, factors that are negatively impacted by discrimination, and that underlie academic adjustment. However, few studies have examined the relation between ethnic-racial socialization and academic outcomes. To advance understanding in this area, the fellow will examine how different patterns of ethnic-racial socialization at home, and perceived discrimination in school, interact to shape motivational factors that drive academic engagement and performance over time. The fellow will also conduct exploratory research to examine how ethnic-racial socialization may promote socio-culturally specific achievement goals (e.g., excelling to disprove stereotypes) that may also contribute to academic outcomes, and that are not yet specified in current models of achievement motivation. This research will be conducted in a longitudinal sample of African, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Chinese, and European American youth. The nature of these data, which represent five ethnic groups, spans 6th through 12th grade, and includes qualitative and quantitative reports from multiple sources (children, parents and teachers), will enable the fellow to answer questions that previous research has been unable to address. The fellow will also utilize both variable-centered and person-centered analyses, in order to capture the multidimensional, interactive nature of parental messages and explore their joint influences. This research will (1) advance knowledge in an under-researched area that is central to ethnic minority development and achievement, (2) apply a substantive theoretical model that elaborates mediational processes and the interplay of multiple contexts, (3) contribute to a more nuanced understanding of ethnic-racial socialization, (4) explore socio-culturally specific achievement goals which have yet to be identified, and (5) identify common and culturally specific processes across multiple groups.
Broader Impacts. Broader personal impacts of this fellowship activity include building the skills, expertise, and publication record necessary to achieve these important career goals: gaining a tenure track position at a major research university, conducting culturally sensitive research, and applying an integrative framework to examine how various contexts affect development in vulnerable populations. Broader practical impacts include advancing knowledge about racially and culturally relevant processes in child development, elucidating how ethnic-racial socialization shapes adolescent motivation and achievement, and identifying factors that may be integrated into interventions aimed at closing the achievement gap. Findings generated from this research will be disseminated through publications and presentations targeted to a variety of audiences, including researchers, educators, parents and policymakers, interested in increasing the participation of underrepresented populations in higher education, research, and STEM fields.
