Examining whether and how Black and Asian parents engage in collective racial socialization

Ethnic-racial socialization, or the process by which parents teach their children about race and racism, is often protective for racially minoritized children. However, these processes typically focus on belonging to one's own racialized group. The present work examines whether and when Black and Asian parents might discuss race and racism as it relates to other racially minoritized groups.

The sample includes 91 parents (54.9% Black, 45.1% Asian; 47.3% women, 49.5% men, 3.3% other, M_age = 38.6, SD = 8.31). We used a preregistered mixed methods approach to examine quantitative predictors (e.g., ideological beliefs, age of own-group ethnic-racial socialization) of discussing discrimination across group boundaries, as well as coding qualitative responses for what types of messages parents use (e.g., color-evasive vs. color-conscious).

Asian parents were more likely to discuss anti-Black discrimination than Black parents were to discuss anti-Asian discrimination. Black and Asian parents did not differ in their likelihood of discussing anti-Latinx discrimination. Asian parents were also more likely to acknowledge racism as a major factor underlying anti-Black discrimination, but not for anti-Asian discrimination. Minimization of race was an important correlate for both whether and how Black and Asian parents engaged in collective racial socialization.

These results better characterize when, how, and for whom parents engage in collective racial socialization and highlight how racially minoritized parents may socialize their children to see similarities across racially minoritized groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).