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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Dev. Psychol.
Sec. Adolescent Psychological Development
Volume 2 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fdpys.2024.1446938
This article is part of the Research Topic Promoting a Kinder and More Just World: The Development of Prosocial, Moral, and Social Justice Behaviors in Adolescence View all 5 articles

Parents' Color-Conscious Racial Socialization and Adolescents' Racial Attitudes: The Moderating Role of Parental Psychological Control

Provisionally accepted
Afra Agalar Afra Agalar 1*Deborah J. Laible Deborah J. Laible 1Gustavo Carlo Gustavo Carlo 2Jeffrey Liew Jeffrey Liew 3
  • 1 Lehigh University, Bethlehem, United States
  • 2 University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States
  • 3 Texas A and M University, College Station, Texas, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Researchers who focus on White U.S. parents' color-conscious socialization practices have predominantly examined the extent, nature, and frequency of conversations about race. However, studies linking such socialization practices to children's racial attitudes are limited to mostly young children and have produced mixed results. The present two-wave longitudinal study examined the relationship between White U.S. parents' color-conscious racial socialization for African Americans and adolescents' racial attitudes, and explored how parental psychological control might moderate this relationship. Participants included 412 White U.S. adolescents (42% girls; Mage = 15.63 years, SD = 1.24) and their primary caregivers (52% mothers). They completed online questionnaires, with parents reporting on their color-conscious racial socialization at Time 1, and adolescents providing measures of their perception of parents' psychological control at Time 1, color-blind attitudes, and racial prejudice at both time points, approximately 16 months apart. Our findings revealed that parents' color-conscious racial socialization for African Americans was negatively associated with adolescents' negative racial attitudes. Additionally, parental psychological control moderated this relation: the negative association was evident only when parents exhibited low or average levels of psychological control. This study highlights the crucial role parents play in shaping their adolescents' racial attitudes and underscores the necessity of an autonomy-supportive environment to enhance the success of parents' color-conscious socialization practices. Understanding these dynamics is essential for developing effective interventions to reduce racial biases and foster inclusive attitudes among adolescents.

    Keywords: racial socialization, Psychological control, Racial attitudes, color-blind beliefs, racial prejudice, White families, parent-child interactions Parental Racial Socialization and Adolescent Attitudes

    Received: 10 Jun 2024; Accepted: 08 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Agalar, Laible, Carlo and Liew. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Afra Agalar, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, United States

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