Racial Socialization in Multiracial Families: A Mixed-Methods Investigation

该奖项是美国国家科学基金会社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行为期两年的培训，并鼓励博士后进行独立研究。美国国家科学基金会寻求促进科学界各阶层的科学家，包括那些未被充分代表的群体的科学家，参与其研究项目和活动；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的一个重要的专业发展阶段。每个博士后必须解决各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在弗吉尼亚联邦大学的Fantasy T. Lozada博士的赞助下，该博士后奖学金奖支持一位早期职业科学家，研究美国增长最快的人口之一——黑白混血青少年中父母种族社会化的前因和后果（美国人口普查局，2018）。种族社会化，或父母与孩子谈论种族的意义和重要性的方式，是一种适应性文化应对实践，可以促进黑人青少年的发展福祉（García Coll等人，1996；murray等人，2018）。更具体地说，种族社会化可以导致单一种族的黑人青少年对黑人和其他黑人采取积极的态度，这可以保护他们免受种族主义的有害影响（Neblett et al., 2013; Peck et al., 2014）。种族社会化对黑白混血青少年来说可能同样重要，因为他们经历了许多与种族相关的压力因素，就像他们的单一种族黑人同龄人一样，以及社会排斥和异国化等独特形式的多种族歧视（Skinner et al., 2020; Yoo et al., 2016）。然而，在过去十年中，只有4%的种族社会化研究包括了混血参与者（Umaña‐Taylor & Hill, 2020），因此我们对黑白混血青年的父母如何围绕种族问题与青少年子女进行社交知之甚少（Stokes et al., 2020）。随着美国变得越来越多样化，我们必须了解社会文化习俗，如父母的种族社会化，如何在多种族家庭中发挥作用，并影响在这种家庭中长大的年轻人。这个混合方法的项目采用了一种新的自我报告测量和观察设计，通过两个阶段对多种族黑人-白人家庭的种族社会化产生丰富的概念化。第一阶段使用潜在阶级分析和结构方程模型来分析自我报告数据，以更好地了解黑白混血青少年从父母那里学到的种族知识，以及它如何影响他们的种族认同和幸福。第二阶段将以这些发现为基础，使用观察性研究来检验父母-青少年关系的情感背景如何影响种族社会化的传播和有效性（Yasui, 2015）。更具体地说，75个多种族的黑人和白人家庭将参观一个研究实验室，分享他们自己生活中与种族有关的事件（例如，种族故事任务）或听关于混血儿青少年面临的常见种族困境的小插曲。参与者将被要求彼此讨论这些场景，并分享他们如何应对类似的种族问题，同时被录下来。然后使用种族社会化观察编码系统（Smith-Bynum et al., 2016）和情感识别软件（如Noldus）对录音进行分析，以检测情感价并了解社会化交流的关系性质（如语气、安慰行为、倡导等）。其他分析将探讨(1)亲子亲密度和儿童特征（如性别、表型）是否影响社会化，(2)黑人和白人父母对种族困境的情绪反应是否不同，以及(3)父母对单一种族歧视经历的反应是否与多种族歧视经历的反应不同。最终，这个项目的两个阶段将推进对多种族黑人-白人家庭中种族社会化的理论理解。它也将开始阐明关于种族的家庭间交流如何影响混血儿青年在我们社会中的发展和与其他人的互动。这些知识可以用来识别“稳定、变化、冲突和合作”的模式，这些模式有助于具有多重种族身份的青少年的社会心理健康，反过来，扩展我们对多种族家庭中种族社会化的基本理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Fantasy T. Lozada at Virginia Commonwealth University, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist examining the antecedents and consequences of parental racial socialization among one of the fastest-growing populations in the United States – Biracial Black-White adolescents (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018). Racial socialization, or the ways that parents talk to their children about the meaning and significance of race, is an adaptive cultural coping practice that can promote the developmental well-being of Black adolescents (García Coll et al., 1996; Murry et al., 2018). More specifically, racial socialization can lead monoracial Black adolescents to adopt positive attitudes about being Black and other Black people, which can protect them from deleterious effects of racism (Neblett et al., 2013; Peck et al., 2014). Racial socialization may be equally as important for Biracial Black-White adolescents as they experience many of the same race-related stressors as their monoracial Black peers and unique forms of Multiracial discrimination like social exclusion and exoticization (Skinner et al., 2020; Yoo et al., 2016). However, only four percent of the studies on racial socialization within the past decade included Biracial participants (Umaña‐Taylor & Hill, 2020), so we know very little about how parents of Biracial Black-White youth socialize their adolescent children around race (Stokes et al., 2020). As the U.S. becomes increasingly diverse, we must learn how sociocultural practices, like parental racial socialization, function within Multiracial families and impact youth who grow up in them. This mixed-methods project employs a new self-report measure and observational design to produce a rich conceptualization of racial socialization in Multiracial Black-White families through two phases. The first phase uses Latent Class Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling to analyze self-report data to better understand what Biracial Black-White adolescents learn about race from their parents and how it impacts their racial identity and well-being. The second phase will build upon these findings by using observational research to examine how the emotional context of the parent-adolescent relationship shapes the transmission and effectiveness of racial socialization (Yasui, 2015). More specifically, 75 Multiracial Black-White families will visit a research lab and share stories about race-related incidents in their own lives (e.g., racial stories task) or listen to vignettes about common racial dilemmas that Biracial adolescents face. The participants will be instructed to discuss the scenarios with one another and share how they did or would respond to racial matters like it while being video recorded. The recordings will then be analyzed using the Racial Socialization Observational Coding system (Smith-Bynum et al., 2016) and emotion recognition software (e.g., Noldus) to detect emotional valence and understand the relational nature (e.g., tone, comforting behavior, advocacy, etc.) of socialization exchanges. Additional analyses will explore (1) if parent-child closeness and child characteristics (e.g., gender, phenotype) influence socialization, (2) if Black and white parents differ in their emotional responses to racial dilemmas, and (3) if parents respond to monoracial experiences of discrimination differently than Multiracial experiences. Ultimately, both phases of this project will advance the theoretical understanding of racial socialization in Multiracial Black-White families. It will also begin to illuminate how interfamilial communication about race shapes how Biracial youth develop in and interact with other people in our society. This knowledge can be used to identify patterns of "stability, change, conflict, and cooperation" that contribute to the psychosocial well-being of youth with multiple racial identities and in turn, expand our fundamental understanding of racial socialization in Multiracial families.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.