Racial Socialization, Identity Development, and Function in African American Adolescence

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

A three-year longitudinal study will investigate how African American adolescents develop specific attitudes regarding the significance and meaning of race in the ways in which they define themselves. Specific race-related attitudes are referred to as racial identity. The research has three objectives. The first objective is to examine how parents' and peers' racial identity attitudes and racial socialization practices influence the racial identity of African American adolescents. The second objective is to examine whether adolescents' racial identity attitudes adhere to a specific pattern of change over time. The third objective is to examine whether particular racial identity attitudes are associated with more positive academic and psychological well-being outcomes for the adolescents. The Multi-Dimensional Model of Racial Identity (MMRI) provides the theoretical base for conceptualizing and measuring racial identity attitudes. The MMRI delineates the extent to which African Americans view race as a significant component of their self-concept and how they define what it means to be Black. The MMRI proposes four dimensions of racial identity: identity salience, the centrality of the identity, the ideology associated with the identity, and the regard in which the person holds the group associated with the identity. Every African American adolescent in grades 7 through 9 of a public school system in a small midwestern city will be recruited to participate in a three-year longitudinal study. The primary caregiver for each adolescent will also be recruited to participate in the study. The study addresses several limitations in the existing research literature. Although recent studies have begun to examine racial socialization practices, relatively few have examined it from an intergenerational perspective. By assessing both the parents' perspective on the racial messages they hope to transmit and the adolescents' perspective of what messages they receive from their parents, the present study provides a more complex view of the racial socialization process. The longitudinal component of the study provides a unique opportunity to examine how adolescents' racial identity attitudes change and remain stable over time. The investigation of the relationships between adolescents' racial identity attitudes and academic and psychological functioning also provides an opportunity to test the relevance of racial identity in the lives of African American adolescents. These contributions to the research literature are essential for a more accurate understanding of the unique racial and cultural experiences of a traditionally under-investigated population.