Racial group regard, barrier socialization, and African American adolescents' engagement: patterns and processes by gender.

The current study examined gendered processes via 1) profiles of racial barrier socialization, regard for one's racial group (private regard), and behavioral engagement and grades and, 2) gender and private regard as a moderator in the link between barrier messages and academic engagement outcomes. One-hundred and twenty-five African American adolescents (ages 10-14, M = 12.39, SD = 1.07) completed measures of socialization, private regard, grades and behavioral engagement. Latent Profile Analysis revealed a 2-cluster solution fit the data best - 1) High Engagement-Race Salient (HERS) cluster and 2) Low Engagement-Non-Salient cluster (LENS). Girls had higher representation in the HERS cluster. When private regard was examined as a moderator, girls' grades were unrelated to barrier socialization and private regard. In contrast, barrier socialization was associated with lower grades for low private regard boys. Findings are discussed in the context of gendered racial school contexts that African American youth must navigate to be academically successful.

Effects of mothers' racial socialization and relationship quality on African American youth's school engagement: a profile approach.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between profiles of adolescents' reports of their mothers' racial socialization (e.g., racial pride and racial barrier messages) and feelings toward their mothers' parenting (e.g., providing a warm, positive climate; using child-centered strategies) and youth engagement. This research addresses the paucity of literature that examines the impact of mothers' parenting as a buffer to declines in school engagement for African American youth. Given that parenting is embedded in a specific cultural niche, this study examines the synergy between racial socialization and mother-child relationship quality. Engagement outcomes consisted of a participant's ability to persist on task in the face of obstacles (task persistence) and their interest and active participation in class (academic engagement). Latent profile analysis on the sample of 94 self-identified African American youth (ages 11-14) revealed three profiles of racial socialization and affective relationship quality. The profiles and their associations with adolescent engagement are discussed. The findings support the importance of examining racial messages in tandem with broad parenting.

Culturally distinctive and academic socialization: direct and interactive relationships with African American adolescents' academic adjustment.

Theories of ethnic minority development have largely suggested that African American parents engage in a combination of practices that include culturally distinctive socialization as well as behaviors that are characteristic of more universal forms of academic socialization. However, few studies have examined how these socialization dimensions interact to influence the academic adjustment of African American adolescents. The current study explored the independent and interactive roles of parental academic and culturally distinctive socialization on the academic adjustment of African American adolescents. The sample was comprised 144 African American adolescents (M = 12.4; SD = 1.14; 56% female). Findings provided partial support that cultural and academic socialization were independently associated with indicators of academic adjustment. However, the interaction between these dimensions also was associated with youths' adjustment in the academic domain.

African American adolescent engagement in the classroom and beyond: the roles of mother's racial socialization and democratic-involved parenting.

Previous research has explored how differential youth outcomes are associated with racial socialization and parenting style individually, but very little work has examined whether democratic-involved parenting style bolsters the positive link between racial messages and adolescent outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine mothers' use of democratic-involved parenting as a moderator of the association between racial socialization (e.g., racial pride, racial barrier, and self-worth messages) and youth engagement. The types of engagement explored were attitudes toward class work and persistence on task. Ninety-four African American youth (ages 11-14) reported on maternal style and socialization. As predicted, racial barrier socialization was positively associated with engagement among adolescents who perceived their mothers to provide more involvement coupled with opportunities for their teens to make decisions. In contrast, barrier socialization and engagement were negatively associated among adolescents who viewed their mothers as low in democratic-involved parenting. Implications for adolescent engagement and for research on racial socialization and democratic-involved parenting style are discussed.

Racial socialization and racial identity: African American parents' messages about race as precursors to identity.

This study uses two waves of data to examine the relationships among patterns of racial socialization experiences and racial identity in a sample of 358 African American adolescents (60% female and 40% male). Using latent class analyses, we identified three patterns of adolescent-reported racial socialization experiences: High Positive, Moderate Positive, and Low Frequency. Adolescent-reported racial socialization experiences at Wave 1 were associated with Wave 2 adolescent racial identity approximately one year later. Specifically, High Positive and Low Frequency racial socialization were associated with racial centrality, assimilationist ideology, and nationalist ideology. These findings suggest that various patterns of racial socialization practices play an important role in the developing significance and meaning that African American adolescents ascribe to race.

Unpacking racial socialization: Considering female African American primary caregivers' racial identity.

The relationship between female African American primary caregivers' racial identity and their racial socialization emphases was examined. Three components of racial identity were evaluated: (1) the importance of race to the self-concept (centrality); (2) affective feelings towards group membership (private regard); and, (3) perceptions of how group members are perceived by nonmembers (public regard). Latent class cluster analysis was used to identify racial identity profiles, or dominant combinations of racial centrality, private regard, and public regard among a sample of 208 female African American primary caregivers. Mean differences in the content of caregivers' socialization emphases by profile group were then assessed. Findings indicated that caregivers' with different identity profiles emphasized different messages. These findings and their implications are discussed.

Gender matters, too: the influences of school racial discrimination and racial identity on academic engagement outcomes among African American adolescents.

The authors examined relationships among racial identity, school-based racial discrimination experiences, and academic engagement outcomes for adolescent boys and girls in Grades 8 and 11 (n = 204 boys and n = 206 girls). The authors found gender differences in peer and classroom discrimination and in the impact of earlier and later discrimination experiences on academic outcomes. Racial centrality related positively to school performance and school importance attitudes for boys. Also, centrality moderated the relationship between discrimination and academic outcomes in ways that differed across gender. For boys, higher racial centrality related to diminished risk for lower school importance attitudes and grades from experiencing classroom discrimination relative to boys lower in centrality, and girls with higher centrality were protected against the negative impact of peer discrimination on school importance and academic self-concept. However, among lower race-central girls, peer discrimination related positively to academic self-concept. Finally, socioeconomic background moderated the relationship of discrimination with academic outcomes differently for girls and boys. The authors discuss the need to consider interactions of individual- and contextual-level factors in better understanding African American youths' academic and social development.