Files
Abstract
Research has been conducted with African American college students exploring a variety of constructs. Much of this work specifically addressed racial identity development. However, racial socialization has not been extensively studied with African American college students, particularly with African American college women. The literature on racial socialization has primarily focused on Black families and how they prepare their children to cope with being in a society where racism and discrimination are still very present regardless of progress. Additionally, this research has involved how parents assist their children in understanding what it means to be an African American or Black person. In recent years, the literature has expanded to include other influences in this process beyond parents, giving support to extended family, friends and others having an influence on individual racial socialization. There is a paucity of research exploring both racial socialization and racial identity development of African American college students. To this date, there has not been a study that solely focuses on African American college women in two different campus environments, a historically Black college and university (HBCU) and predominantly White institution (PWI). This study explored racial socialization and racial identity in African American college women at an HBCU and PWI. Study participants were selected from two public institutions, one HBCU and one PWI, in the southeast, to participate in this study. The Comprehensive Race Socialization Inventory (CRSI) was utilized to evaluate racial socialization and the Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity (MMRI) was used to explore racial identity.