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Published on: July 10, 2017
Caregiver Ethnic-Racial Socialization and Ethnic-Racial Minority Children's Psychological Adjustment: The Moderating
Qingfang Song1, Casey Buck2, Maria C Lent3
1Department of Applied Human Sciences, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA.
Abstract:
Caregiver ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) plays an important role in outcomes among ethnic-racial minority youth (ERMY), but mixed findings suggest that the impact of ERS may vary depending on additional factors such as physiological stress reactivity to exclusion. This study examined whether ERMY's skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR) to exclusion moderated the associations between caregiver ERS (cultural socialization, preparation for bias, and promotion of mistrust) and their psychological adjustment. A total of 83 children (51% Latinx; 49% Black/African American), aged 6-11 years (Mage = 8.82 years, SD = 1.54), and their caregivers participated in the study. Children completed Cyberball tasks eliciting experiences of exclusion while SCLR was assessed. Caregivers completed questionnaires to report ERS and children's psychosocial adjustment. All three dimensions of caregiver ERS were associated with greater externalizing problems among children who exhibited lower SCLR to exclusion. In addition, preparation for bias was related to lower adaptive skills among youth with low SCLR. In contrast, promotion of mistrust was related to lower externalizing problems, and preparation for bias was related to higher adaptive skills among children with higher SCLR. The findings support the goodness-of-fit model in understanding the impact of caregiver ERS in the context of children's physiological stress reactivity.
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