White Racial Socialization

A body of psychological literature focuses on the messages that parents of color communicate to their children regarding race and ethnicity, though much less is known about what White parents teach their children about race and ethnicity. In a qualitative study, we explored the perspectives of White parents of White children ages 7-17 years old (Freeman et al., 2022), and we developed a self-report survey measure to assess racial socialized based on these data. This measure assesses for frequency of different topics discussed with children, perceived challenges or concerns in socialization practices, perceived benefits to socialization and methods of socialization. We are currently in the process of validating the measure.

In a separate study, we are exploring retrospective accounts of White emerging adults regarding the racial socialization messages they received during childhood and their perspectives on what they wished their parents had communicated and discussed.