Files
Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the process of ethnic-racial socialization in Black American families with school-aged children. Using thematic analysis, I qualitatively analyzed video recorded interactions between Black parents/caregivers (N = 45) and their young children (Mage = 10.9) while they engaged in discussions via the Racial Socialization Observational Task (RSOT; Smith-Bynum et al., 2016). During this task, dyads engaged in conversations about a fictitious vignette scenario that described a young Black child encountering a police officer for the first time. Within Black American culture, parents often initiate a conversation with their children known as “the Talk” in which they educate them on how to manage interactions with individuals in positions of power and authority, namely police. The analyses focused primarily on the reactions of parents during these dyadic interactions and sought to illuminate the experiences of Black parents as they navigated these difficult conversations. Because the RSOT was initially developed to be quantitatively analyzed using a numerical rating system and this study employed a qualitative analytic approach, the first manuscript of this dissertation is a methodological paper that elucidates the process of qualitative secondary data analyses when re-using data that were collected for quantitative analyses. The findings of this study extend the ethnic-racial socialization literature by highlighting an often overlooked aspect of this familial process – the parental experience. Additionally, the methodological manuscript fills a critical gap in the qualitative secondary data analysis literature and provides practical guidelines for researchers interested in this research approach.