School Ethnic-Racial Socialization and Adolescent Ethnic-Racial Identity

• Published in: Cultural diversity & ethnic minority psychology 2022-04, Vol.28 (2), p.205-216
• Main Authors: Byrd, Christy M., Legette, Kamilah B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Attitudes; Adolescent Development; Child; Commitment; Cross Cultural Differences; Ethnic Identity; Ethnicity; Female; High School Students; Human; Humans; Male; Membership; Messages; Racial Groups; Racial Identity; Schools; Social Identification; Socialization
• ISSN: 1099-9809; 1939-0106
• DOI: 10.1037/cdp0000449

Objective: Schools are an influential source of information on the meaning of race and culture in society and adolescents' personal lives. Yet, that influence is understudied in the literature on adolescent ethnic-racial identity (ERI) development. Studies of ethnic-racial socialization tend to focus on the family context; the current study measures adolescents' perceptions of ethnic-racial socialization from the school context. Methods: The sample includes 819 youth aged 12-18 (M = 15.27, SD = 1.58) from 4 ethnic-racial groups. We used structural equation modeling to examine the relations between ethnic-racial socialization and ERI controlling for race, gender, and age. To examine ethnic-racial group membership as a moderator, a multigroup model was used. Results: The findings show that, across ethnic-racial groups, the perceptions of opportunities to learn about one's ethnic-racial background and messages about American values are positively associated with youths' exploration of and commitment to their identities. Furthermore, color-blind socialization messages were associated with lower identity commitment. Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of the school context in shaping students' ethnic-racial socialization and identity. This study investigated how what adolescents learn about race/ethnicity and culture in school is associated with their ERI. The findings indicate that opportunities to learn about one's culture are related to more identity exploration and greater sense of the importance of group membership. Furthermore, opportunities to learn about other cultures promote positive attitudes toward people of different races/ethnicities.