Social-cultural predictors of parental racial/ethnic and emotion socialization and relations to child social-emotional adjustment

The following body of work addressed several gaps in the literature regarding our understanding of racial/ethnic differences in parents’ emotion socialization practices, the social-cultural antecedents of African American parents’ racial/ethnic and emotion socialization practices, and the interactive effect of parents’ racial/ethnic and emotion socialization practices on young African American children’s social-emotion development. Study 1 used 2 waves of data to examine whether differences in experienced racial/ethnic discrimination between African American and European American parents predict differences in their beliefs about the appropriateness and social consequences of children’s displays of negative emotions and subsequent differences in their use of suppression responses to children’s negative emotions. Study 2 used 2 waves of data and a within group design to examine whether African American parents’ reported discrimination, ethnic identity, and emotion beliefs predict their racial/ethnic and emotion socialization practices in similar ways given the two practices are theorized as joint strategies aimed at protecting children from experiences of bias. Study 3 used 1 wave of data and a multi-informant (i.e., parent and teacher report), multi-method (observational and questionnaire data) to examine the joint role of parents’ racial/ethnic and emotion socialization practices in promoting young African American children’s social-emotional adjustment. Collectively, the studies provided empirical evidence for the view that racial and emotion socialization have developed out of similar socio-cultural and ecological antecedents, specifically, the context of racism and discrimination that African American families must navigate. Results also revealed that how parents combine their use of racial and emotion socialization has a significant impact on children’s social-emotional development. Implications for research and practice are discussed