Files
Abstract
Forming a healthy sense of self related to one’s racial and ethnic group membership is an essential developmental process. For Black and Latinx youth, ethnic-racial identity development is influenced by a variety of contexts, the most prominent of which is ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) in the family. Experiences outside the home (e.g., at school) become more important to youth identity processes as youth approach adolescence. The studies embedded in this dissertation explored the important processes of caregiver-child dyadic ERS and ethnic-racial identity development in the school context with a multiply imputed, longitudinal sample of Black and Latinx families (N = 353). In the first study, the simultaneous contributions of caregivers and youth to the ERS process were observed and analyzed for heterogenous patterns using latent profile analysis. In the second study, the influence of youth’s school experiences on their ethnic-racial identity development across the transition to middle school was tested with a subset of the previous sample (N = 269) for whom school information was available. The main effects of school climate and discrimination and the moderating effects of dyadic ERS and being among the minority versus majority racial/ethnic group at school were tested in a structural equations modeling framework. Findings of the first study suggested there were five differing patterns of dyadic ERS in this sample: Low Dyadic Engagement, Parent-Led, Justice Salient Advocates, Child Dominant, and Multifaceted Dyadic Engagement. ERS profiles were distinguishable by the degree to which both caregiver and child engaged in discussions about racial/ethnic bias, provided suggestions, and were warm and affectionate to one another. In the second study, greater perceived discrimination predicted decreased identity affirmation for both Black and Latinx youth. Meanwhile, positive school climates were associated with increased identity affirmation for Latinx youth who were not in the majority at their school. In contrast, being in the majority exacerbated the negative effects of discrimination on identity development for Latinx youth. Several effects of youth’s school experiences were influenced by the style of ERS they engaged in with caregivers. In light of these findings, instances in which changes by schools versus changes in ERS may benefit youth identity development more are discussed.