Racial Socialization Effects

The Effects of Racial Socialization on Openness to Experience of College Students In undercovering how people experience racial socialization, it is important to look at how different racial groups are talking about race. Racial socialization is defined as “verbal and nonverbal messages communicated to children for the development of values, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs regarding the meaning and significance of race and racial stratification, interactions, and identity” (Lesane-Brown, 2006). Cultural psychologists and sociologists who study racialization focus on many different messages, such as warnings about racial inequalities, mistrust of other ethnic groups, messages emphasizing pride in being part of a racial group, and silence

Constantine and Blackmon (2002) administered the Teenage Experiences of Racial Socialization Scale (TERS) to 115 middle school students attending predominantly Black schools and asked them about parental racial messages and self esteem. Results showed that parental messages reflecting pride and knowledge about Black culture were more positively associated with Black youths’ peer self-esteem. However, messages about the relative importance of majority culture (e.g., white) institutions and values were negatively associated with school self esteem. These findings may explain why the roles of parents and peers providing positive racial group messages is so important to the success of many Black

This meta-analysis of racial socialization research examined its nature and frequency, looked for predictors, and saw that the consequences impacted ethnic identity, self-esteem, coping with discrimination, academic achievement, and psychosocial well-being. Unfortunately, personality traits was not a frequently researched consequence, which proves a possible oversight in literature. Another aspect that was recognized in this study was the prioritization of African American racial socialization research. In that lens, there is a lot of research on the impacts of racial socialization on academic performance, friendships, discrimination, ethnic identity, and mental health. The body of literature is growing for other races, but it is still small compared to that which exists for African Americans, likely due to the powerful Black-White tension in the United