Sociodemographic and EnvironmentalCorrelates of Racial Socializationby Black Parents

Miehael C. ThorntonUniversity of Wisconsin—Madison

Linda M. ChattersSchool of Public Health, University of Michigan

Robert Joseph TaylorSchool of Social Work, University of Michigan

Walter R. AllenUniversity of California, Los Angeles

THORNTON, MICHAEL C ; CHATTERS, LINDA M.; TAYLOR, ROBERT JOSEPH; and ALLEN, WALTER R.Sociodemographic and Environmental Correlates of Racial Socialization by Black Parents. CHILDDEVELOPMENT, 1990, 61, 401-409. The present study focused on the content and practice of racialsocialization by black parents. Sociodemographic correlates of pattems of racial socialization wereexamined using data from a national probability sample of 2,107 respondents (National Study ofBlack Americans). Multivariate analysis revealed that gender, age, marital status, region, and racialcomposition of neighborhood predicted whether or not black parents imparted racial socializationmessages to their children. Black parents envision racial socialization as involving several compo-nents, including messages regarding their experience as minority group members, themes em-phasizing individual character and goals, and information related to black cultural heritage. Thefindings highlighted the critical importance of sociodemographic and environmental influences onthe socialization process. Implications for future research on racial socialization are discussed.

An important goal of all families is to families, socialization occurs within a broaderhelp prepare their members to participate societal environment that is frequenUy in-successfuUy as citizens of the wider society. compatible with attaining positive mentalThrough the process of socialization, individ- health. Parents must act as a buffer betweenuals acquire an understanding of recognized their offspring and society (Peters & Massey,statuses, roles, and prescribed behaviors and 1983; Spencer, 1982) and function as both alocate themselves and others in the social filter of societal information and as a primarystructure. Parents and the broader social and interpreter of the social structure,environmental context play crucial roles inthis process. Parental socialization values The process of racial socialization is onegenerally refiect and complement those of the means by which black parents and familieswider community, and, ideally, other major address these concerns. Broadly defined, ra-socialization agents reinforce the pattems cial socialization includes specific messagesfound within families. Black parents, how- and practices that are relevant to and provideever, encounter unique societal proscriptions information conceming the nature of race sta-that create a dilemma for inculcating a posi- tus as it relates to: (1) personal and grouptive group identity in their children. For black identity, (2) intergroup and interindividual re-

The data collection on which this manuscript is based was supported by the National Instituteon Mental Health (Center for Minority Group Mental Health) (MH30706) and the National Instituteon Aging (AG01294), James S. Jackson and Gerald Giurin, co-principal investigators. The prepara-tion of this manuscript was supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging (AG07179),Linda M. Chatters, principal investigator, and (AG06856) Robert J. Taylor, principal investigator.Correspondence conceming this article should be addressed to Michael C. Thornton, Departmentof Afro-American Studies, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI 53706.

[ChUd Development, 1990, 61, 401-409. © 1990 by the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.AU rights reserved. OO09-3920/9O/61O2-0O03$O1.003

402 Child Development

lationships, and (3) position in the social hier-archy. The forms of racial socialization in-clude specific verbal behaviors (i.e., directstatements regarding race), modeling of be-haviors, and exposure to specific objects, con-texts, and environments (i.e., artifacts and set-tings).

Frequently, as in the case of direct state-ments, race of participant(s) is specificallyhighlighted as a primary feature of these mes-sages. Although race of participant(s) is a sa-lient aspect of racial socialization practicesthat involve behavioral modeling and expo-sure to environments and artifacts, race, perse, may or may not be emphasized explicitlyby the parent. The content of racial socializa-tion practices reflects to varying degrees thedomains of concern that are specifically ad-dressed, a strategy for enacting the message,and a valence (i.e., positive, negative, or neu-tral) that is attached to racial status.

Research on racial socialization has tradi-tionally highlighted the parent-child (i.e., mi-nor child) relationship (Mllner, 1983; Slaugh-ter, 1981). Considerably less attention hasbeen paid to the accompanying analysis ofhow social structure intervenes in the parent-child relationship. Because parental percep-tions of the social system are influenced bysocial location (e.g., socioeconomic status),the issue of racial socialization, as well as thecontent and nature of objectives deemed im-portant and appropriate for one's children, arepresumably different for parents of diversebackgrounds. Despite this, little is knownabout how sociodemographic factors influ-ence socialization (Bronfenbrenner, 1986).

Role and content of race socialization.—Although there is littie consensus amongblack peirents regarding the relative impor-tance assigned to racial issues in the socializa-tion process, it emerges as a component ofsocialization across families of diverse socio-economic backgrounds (e.g., Hale-Benson,1982; Renne, 1970). For some parents, race isone of the central concerns in raising theirchildren. They believe they are not simplyraising an American, but a black or African-American, whose situation and experiencesare distinct from that of other Americans (Pe-ters, 1985). Similarly, parents who anticipatethat their children will encounter a hostile so-cial environment teach them to be comfort-able with their blackness (Daniel, 1975; Har-rison, 1985).

For some parents, however, race plays arelatively minor role in the socialization pro-

cess. Ogbu (1983) describes these families aspopulations at risk and their children as mani-festing problems of racial dissonance (seeCross, 1985, for a review of this literature).Many of these parents, either because theyaccept the negative images of blacks perpetu-ated by society, or because they fail to system-atically address these negative images in theirsocialization approaches, are ill equipped toinstill a positive racial identity in their chil-dren. As such, they can provide their childrenlittle protection from infiuences deleterious tothe development of constructive group iden-tity or assist them in their struggle for positivemental health (Semaj, 1985). For other par-ents, there is a reluctance to discuss race orracism for fear that such a discussion wouldmake their children bitter, resentful, and prej-udiced against others. Other parents discussmatters of ethnic heritage only when asked todo so by their children (Lewis, 1955; Spencer,1983).

The content of what black parents teachtheir children about race is not easily charac-terized, in part because there is little researchon this issue. Boykin and Toms (1985) pro-pose a model for the socialization of blackchildren that involves the interplay betweenthree major themes: (1) cultural experience(i.e., styles, motifs, and pattems of behaviorunique to blacks), (2) minority experience(i.e., social, economic, and political forces im-pinging on racial minorities leading to a set ofcoping styles, social outlooks, and defensivepositions), and (3) mainstream experience(i.e., infiuences of white, middle-class cul-ture).

Available evidence indicates that ele-ments of the cultural experience of blacks arenot customarily a part of racial socializationmessages, and parents seldom talk of blackculture, whether domestic or African. Thosethat do recount historical events in their ownfamily lives or talk of famous historical figures(Spencer, 1983; Tatiim, 1987). Refiecting as-pects of the minority experience theme, par-ents often view the primary goal of racial so-cialization as preparing their offspring for anoppressive environment (Richardson, 1981;Tatiim, 1987). Peters (1985) found that whileparents thought that inculcating a racial iden-tity was important, it was not foremost in so-cializing their children. Being black meantthat their children should: (1) leam how tosurvive and cope with prejudice, (2) acquireself-respect and pride, (3) grasp the impor-tance of a good education, and (4) understandthat fair play, while important, was not recip-rocated by whites.

Thornton et al. 403

Finally, some parents downgrade the im-portance of race and focus instead on humanvalues (Spencer, 1983). In a study of blackfemilies by Willie (1981), one informant saidthat she raised her son "without a color at-titude" and believed he would decide later inlife what group to identify with (p. 144). Par-ents such as these see their primary role asthat of teaching life skills. Personal qualitiessuch as confidence, ambition, and respect areseen as more important than messages regard-ing race. These parents tend to transcend is-sues of race in their socialization efforts andrear race-neutral children.

Previous research on racial socializationhas, by and large, relied on small, nonproba-bility samples of respondents from geographi-cally limited areas. Additionally, work in thisarea has focused almost exclusively on theinterpersonal relationship between parent(s)and child, with little attention given to thestructural dimensions of racial socializationpractices. The purpose of the present researchwas to investigate the socialization practicesof black Americans by focusing on self-reports of their behaviors in this regard. Blackparents were asked whether or not they ra-cially socialized their children and, if so, thecontent of what was taught

The present investigation possesses sev-eral distinct advantages in addressing theseissues. The data on which the study is basedare from a large national probability sampleof blacks in the United States (the NationalSurvey of Black Americans). This sampledisplays a degree of heterogeneity on majorsociodemographic factors not previouslyavailable in research on racial socialization.The heterogeneity and size of the sample, inconjunction with the multivariate analysisstrategy, allow: (a) an examination of vari-ables, assumed to have an important bearingon racial socialization but that are rarelytested formally (e.g., urban-rural, region), and(b) the capacity to examine whether a rela-tionship of primary concern (e.g., gender)maintains significance when other variablesare controlled (e.g., income, education).

MethodData.—The analyses were conducted on

the National Survey of Black Americans(NSBA) dataset These data were collected bythe Program for Research on Black Ameri-cans, Survey Research Center, Institute forSocial Research, University of Michigan. TheNSBA questionnaire is comprised of items inthe areas of social support, help-seeking, em-ployment and unemployment, group and per-

sonal identity, and demographic information.The NSBA sample is the first nationally rep-resentative cross-section of the adult (18 yearsand older) black population living in the con-tinental United States.

The sample was drawn according to amultistage, area probability procedure de-signed to assure tiiat every black householdhad the same probability of being selected forthe study. Based on the 1970 Census distribu-tion of the black population, 76 primary areaswere selected for interviewing. These siteswere stratified according to racial composi-tion, and small geographical areas (called"clusters") were chosen randomly. Next, pro-fessionally trained interviewers went intoeach cluster and listed every habitable house-hold. Since correct identification of eligiblerespondents was critical, special screeningprocedures were developed for finding blackhouseholds. Finally, within each selectedblack household, one person was randomlychosen for a personal interview in their home.This sampling procedure resulted in 2,107completed interviews collected in 1979 and1980 representing a response rate of nearly70%. For a more complete description of theNSBA sample, see Neighbors and Jackson(1984).

Demographic description of the sam-ple.—A description of the entire sample withregard to the major demographic variables isprovided. With reference to age, 18.8% of therespondents were between the ages of 18 and25,22.1% were 26 to 34,31.5% were 35 to 54,11.4% were 55 to 64, and 16.2% were 65 yearsof age and over. Nearly two-thirds (62.2%) ofthe sample were women. Marital designa-tions indicated that 41.7% of the respondentswere married, 11.7% were divorced, 9.9%were separated, 14.5% were widowed, and22.2% were never married. Almost half of therespondents (44%) in this sample had lessthan a high school diploma. Thirty-one per-cent graduated from high school, and the re-maining 25% either graduated from college(8.8%) or had some college (16.0%).

Respondents were fairly evenly dividedacross income categories; 25.1% of the re-spondents reported a femily income of lessthan $5,000, another 25.6% reported $5,000to $9,999, 26.8% reported a family incomeof $10,000 to $19,999, and 22.5% of the re-spondents reported a family income of over$20,000. Over half of the respondents residedin the South (53.4%). Twenty-two percentlived in the North Central region, 17.6% inthe Northeast, and 6.9% in the West. Eightout of 10 respondents (79.8%) resided in ur-

404 Child Development

ban areas. A comparison of the NSBA samplewith census data is provided by Taylor (1986).

A variable representing the racial compo-sition of the respondent's neighborhood wasincluded in the analysis. Respondents wereasked, "When you think about your presentneighborhood, are mostly blacks or whitesthere?" (response categories were all blacks,mostly blacks, about half black, mosdywhites, and almost all whites). Close to half(45.7%) of the sample state that the racialcomposition of their present neighborhood isall black, 33.0% of respondents indicate thattheir neighborhood is mostly black, 10.9% sayabout half black, 6.2% report that their neigh-borhood is mostly white, and 2.4% of the re-spondents state that their present neighbor-hood is almost all white.

Independent and dependent variables.—A full complement of sociodemographic fac-tors (i.e., age, gender, marital status, educa-tion, family income, region, urbanicity, andneighborhood racial composition) are desig-nated as independent variables in the anal-ysis. The dependent variables assessedwhether or not respondents have racially so-cialized their children and, if so, what was thecontent of those racial socialization messages.Respondents were asked, "In raising yourchildren, have you done or told them thingsto help them know what it is to be black?" Ifyes, they were asked, "What are the most im-portant things you've done or told them?"Preliminary responses to this item (pretestdata) were used to develop a detailed cod-ing scheme. Subsequent elaborations andchanges in the code structure were carefullymonitored, documented, and incorporatedduring production coding phases. Individualcategories within the code structure representdiscrete information and are mutually exclu-sive of one another.

Analysis strategy.—Logistic regressionprocedures were utilized to determine theeffects of the sociodemographic and neigh-borhood composition factors on racial social-ization. Logistic regression was chosen forseveral reasons. Linear regression analysis us-ing a continuous dependent variable is basedon a linear model. However, the linear func-tional form is not a reasonable approximationof the true model when considering a dichoto-mous dependent variable. A nonlinear func-tion of a general S shape is more suitable andimplies that a given marginal change in prob-ability is more difficult to obtain when theprobability is closest to one of the limits. Theuse of ordinary least squares (OLS) regressionwith a dichotomous dependent variable can

result in misleading estimates that fail to ap-proximate any part of the true probabilitymodel. The error terms that result from usingthe wrong functional form and the dichoto-mous nature of the observations are likely tobe correlated with the values of the indepen-dent variables, a violation of OLS assump-tions. However, with logistic regression anal-ysis, the dependent variable is the log of theodds of a given response category, therebyallowing the estimation of the linear effects ofthe independent variables using the max-imum likelihood function. A logistic regres-sion model was specified using a dichoto-mous dependent variable that contrastedwhether or not respondents indicated thatthey had racially socialized their children.

Results

The purpose of this study was to examinethe sociodemographic and environmental cor-relates of racial socialization by black parents.Two out of three black parents (63.6%) indi-cate that they have said or acted in a mannerto racially socialize children. Table 1 presentsthe logistic regression of the probability ofracially socializing children (Model I). Age,gender, marital status, and region are signifi-cantly associated with whether or not blackparents provide racial socialization messagesto their children. The basic model indicatesthat older respondents, women, and personsresiding in the Northeast (as compared toSoutherners) are more likely to racially social-ize children, while parents \vho have nevermarried are less likely than their marriedcounterparts to impart racial socializationmessages.

As part of the analysis plan, selected testsfor the presence of interactions between theindependent factors and the dependent vari-able were made. A significant age x educa-tion interaction term (Model II) indicates thatthe relation between age and whether respon-dents racially socialize their children is stron-ger for respondents who possess higher levelsof formal education than for their counter-parts. Tabular analysis (not shown) indicatesthat age and the dependent variable are morestrongly related among respondents with highlevels of education (gamma = .46, p < .001)than for those with low levels of education(gamma = .28, p < .001). At higher levels ofeducation, therefore, older persons are con-siderably more likely to racially socialize theirchildren.

The observed gender relation in the ba-sic models (Table 1, Models I and II) indi-cates that women are more likely than men to

Thornton et al. 405

TABLE 1

LOGISTIC REGRESSION COEFFICIENTS FOR THE PROBABILITY OF RACIALLYSOCIALIZING CHILDREN

InterceptAgeGender:

MaleMarital status:

SeparatedDivorcedWidowedNever married —1.11***

EducationIncomeUrbanicity:

UrbanRegion:

NortheastNorth CentralWest

Neighborhood racialcomposition:

Mostly blackHalf blackMostly whiteAlmost all whitege X education

MODEL I

b

-.804.026***

-.379**

-.137.090

-1.11***.025.013

-.026

.361*

.131

.194

.125

.239

.131

.282

115.82***

SE

(.412)(.005)

(.131)

(.204)(.191)(.221)(.206)(.023)(.017)

(.163)

(.180)(.161)(.277)

(.139)(.191)(.243)(.417)

MODEL II

b

1.343-.014

- .353***

-.165.078

-.263-1.097***

-.175***.013

-.038

.34

.13

.19

.138

.266

.183

.311

.004***126.78***

SE

(.769)(.013)

(.132)

(.204)(.192)(.222)(.206)(.065)(.017)

(.164)

(.181)(.162)(.279)

(.139)(.192)(.245)(.412)(.001)

NOTE.—Several of the predictors are represented by dummy variables: Gender (0 = female,1 = male), marital status (Married is the excluded category), urbanicity (0 = rural, 1 = urban),region (SouA Is the excluded category), racial composition of the neighborhood (All Black is theexcluded category).

• p < .05.**p< .01.**• p < .001.

racially socialize their children. Because priorresearch suggests that the socialization prac-tices of men and women vary significandy(Bozett, 1985), analyses reported in Table 2examine whether the set of factors that pre-dict the probability of racially socializing chil-dren are different for men and women. Acrossboth men and women, never-married parentsare less likely than their married counterpartsto racially socialize their children. Amongmen only, however, widowers are less likelythan married men, older men are more likelythan tlieir younger counterparts, and resi-dents of the Northeast are more likely thanSouthemers to racially socialize their chil-dren, l l ie age x education interaction termnoted previously in the basic model is not sig-nificant for men and is not included in thepreferred model (Table 2, Model I). Amongwomen, residence in neighborhoods in whichhalf of the residents are black (as compared to

all black neighborhoods) is associated with agreater likelihood of racially socializing chil-dren. In addition, the age X education inter-action retains its significance in the regressionfor women (Model II).

Respondents provide diverse accounts ofthe most important racial socialization mes-sages that they impart to their children.Slightly more than one-fifth of the sample(22.2%) stress the importance of achievingand working hard (e.g., "You must work hardto get a good education"), while 6.9% under-score the importance of good citizenship andmoral virtues (e.g., "be a good citizen," "re-spect others," "be honest, fair"). Seventeenpercent of respondents (17.2%) emphasize ra-cial pride (e.g., "be proud of being black,""never be ashamed of their color"), 8.6% dis-cuss themes involving black heritage and thehistorical tradition of blacks ("taught what

406 Child Development

TABLE 2

LOGISTIC REGRESSION COEFFICIENTS FOR THE PROBABILITY OF RACIALLYSOCIALIZING CHILDREN SEPARATELY FOR FATHERS AND MOTHERS

MODEL I MODEL II(Fathers) (Mothers)

SE b SE

Intercept -1.316 (.069) 1.739 (1.00)Age 032*** (.008) -.027 (.018)Marital status:

Separated -.264 (.369) -.064 (.252)Divorced -.201 (.314) .300 (.248)Widowed -.870* (.429) .016 (.277)Never married -1.367*** (.397) -.944*** (.250)

Education 042 (.035) -.231** (.086)Income 024 (.030) .021 (.021)Urbanicity:

Urban -.373 (.272) .180 (.209)Region:

Northeast 869** (.317) .021 (.225)North Central 343 (.262) - .050 (.209)West 565 (.439) -.040 (.368)

Neighborhood racialcomposition:

Mostly black 001 (.236) .194 (.174)Half black -.351 (.325) .629* (.248)Mostly white - .480 (.359) .613 (.358)All white -.332 (.587) .825 (.629)

Age X education . . . .005** (.002)X̂ 56.94*** 85.35***

NOTE.—Several of the predictors are represented by dummy variables: Marital status (Mar-ried is the excluded category), urbanicity (0 == rural, 1 = urban); region (South is the excludedcategory), racial composition of the neighborhood (All Black is the excluded category).

* p < .05.** p < .01.*** p < .001.

happened in the past and how people personal character traits (e.g., self-discipline),coped"), 6.5% instruct their children to recog- and 1.6% tell their children that they shouldnize and accept their racial background (e.g., stand up for themselves and their rights. Fi-"accept your color," "realize you're black"), nally, 8.7% of the respondents provided a va-and 4.8% tell their children to maintain a pos- riety of responses (each iess than 1%) to theitive self image (e.g., "you are as good as any- question focusing on intergroup relations, theone else," "take pride in themselves"). Eight importance of an accommodative position inpercent (8.2%) of respondents stress the pres- dealing with whites, the use of collective ac-ence of racial restrictions and blocked oppor- tion on behalf of blacks, negative group im-tunities facing blacks (e.g., "blacks don't have ages conceming blacks, and statements indi-the opportunities that whites have") and 6.0% eating that they did not impart any specificemphasize the fundamental equality of blacks messages to tbeir children conceming race,and whites (e.g., "recognize all races asequal"). Disenssion

The remaining categories of responses to For the majority of black parents in thisthis question comprise a diverse assortment of sample, race was a primary element of theirracial socialization messages: 2.7% instruct child socialization practices. The presenttheir children to maintain their social distance study demonstrated diat age, gender, region,from whites, 1.9% indicate a general accep- marital status, and neighborhood compositiontance of self (without racial content), 1.7% were important factors that infiuenced thestress peaceful coexistence with w^hites, 1.6% probability that race was a component of so-emphasize religious principles, 1.4% discuss cialization efforts. The relation between age

Thornton et al. 407

and racial socialization concurs with reseeirchon age pattems in racial group identification.Older black adults are more likely tban theiryounger counterparts to possess a strong ra-cial group identity (Broman, Neighbors, &Jackson, 1988; Thomton & Taylor, 1988).Older black parents in this sample were morelikely than younger parents to view informa-tion regarding racial identity as a necessaryelement of the socialization process.

Although both parents are involved inthe socialization process, mothers generallyhave more responsibilities and tend to spe-cialize in intellectual and emotional aspectsof socialization (Lamb & Lamb, 1976). Tbepresent findings similarly indicated thatmothers were more likely than fathers to edu-cate children about race. Further, gender dif-ferences in the predictors for relating racialsocialization messages indicated that themechanism is different for mothers and fa-thers. However, the data on which these anal.-yses are based refiect aggregate group dif-ferences for black women and men who areparents, rather than differences between themembers of parental couples (i.e., mothersand fathers). As such, the racial socializationpattems found among parental couples maybe very different than those reported here foraggregate groups of black parents. Age andgender statuses combined in an interestingmanner to affect the probability of impartingracial socialization messages to one's child.Although age status positively affected theprobability of racial socialization for bothmothers and fathers in this Sample, its in-fiuence was especially pronounced amongmothers who had higher levels of education.The age X education interaction found for thesubsample of women indicated that motherswho were older and possessed higher levelsof education were particularly likely to imparta racial socialization message to their chil-dren.

Marital status was also related to the so-cialization practices of black mothers and fa-thers. Parents who were never married wereless likely to socialize their offspring to racialdictums. While the reasons for this relationare unclear, the general research on the ef-fects of marital status on socialization indi-cates that never-married parents provide lessparental supervision than married couples(Dombusch et al., 1985). Single female par-ents are often found to reduce the time in-volved in active child rearing becauseof excessive demands placed upon tbem byoutside employment and housekeeping(McLanahan, 1985). Widowed men also may

suffer emotional and social losses affectingtheir ability to fulfill many of the role obliga-tions incumbent upon parents (Stroebe &Stroebe, 1983), including socialization of chil-dren and racial socialization in particular.

Despite the fact that marital status was asignificant predictor of the probability of ra-cially socializing children, it is merely a proxyfor a variety of family factors, such as the qual-ity of conditions and relationships within thefamily network. In order to more clearly un-derstand the nature of marital status differ-ences in the socialization of children, its sig-nificance in terms of other family dimensionsneeds to be carefully delineated. Further, thetiming of marital status changes such as di-vorce or widowhood may significantly affectchildrearing practices generally and the sig-nificance that is attached to racial socializa-tion.

Region of the country was associatedwith pattems of socialization for men, suchthat fathers who resided in the Northeastwere more likely than Southemers to instructtheir children about race. Living in the North-east enhanced the importance of race in thesocialization process, while men in other re-gions were no different from the comparisongroup of Southemers in the probability of im-parting racial messages. Understanding thenature of this region effect requires furtherexamination.

Mothers who presently live in neighbor-hoods that were about equally divided be-tween black and white residents were morelikely to socialize their children to racial mat-ters than were mothers who lived in all-blackcommunities. A similar pattem of heightenedsocialization has been found in research onthe socialization of black youth in mixed-raceversus predominantly white neighborhoods(Banks, 1984). Black parents living in predom-inantly white neighborhoods felt tbat their ac-tive participation in the racial socialization oftheir children was more imperative than ifthey resided in a black community (Tatum,1987).

The qualitative results described in thisarticle indicate that racial socialization in-volves a number of components that are com-parable to the socialization paradigm pro-posed by Boykin and Toms (1985). Themajority of parents mentioned socializationgoals that corresponded to the theme of theminority experience. These responses ac-knowledged the presence of racial restrictions(e.g., "blacks don't have the opportunities thatwhites have"), emphasized a general recogni-

408 Child Development

tion of one's race (e.g., "accept your color"), orprovided information that would help to de-velop appropriate psychological coping stylesand perspectives regarding minority status.Responses that highlighted achievement andhard work (e.g., "You must work hard to get agood education") or moral virtues were rep-resentative of socialization messages thatrefiected the mainstream experience. Theirgeneral focus is on the individual, with lim-ited consideration given the broader socialcontext. Socialization messages that were re-fiective of the black cultural experience em-phasized black heritage, history, and tradi-tions (e.g., "taught what happened in the pastand how people coped").

The present findings are conditioned byboth the nature of the data and the dependentvariable used in this analysis. The results de-scribed here are based on retrospective ac-counts of behavior and are potentially af-fected by deficits and distortions (e.g., socialdesirability) in recall. Careful attention to thestmcture and content of questionnaire itemsand the interviewing situation may both fa-cilitate the recall of material and minimizedistortion in its reporting. Additionally, theobserved age effects may refiect the con-founding of parental and child ages (i.e.,younger parents with very small childrenwould not have begun socialization aroundthis issue). Gender differences in racial social-ization messages could be related to differ-ences based on the custodial status of di-vorced and separated parents (i.e., fatherstend to be the noncustodial parent). Furtherresearch specifying the nature of these ageand gender effects is required to addressthese issues. Finally, a limitation of this andother studies (including direct observation) isthat information about socialization goals istypically gathered at only one point in time,so that the socialization process is depicted asartificially static. Prospective studies will helpto develop an appreciation of racial socializa-tion as an ongoing process.

We are just beginning to understand tbelink between racial socialization and the so-cial and'environmental context that black par-ents and children encounter. There is scantinformation regarding how individuals andinstitutions within communities contribute toor compete with the family's efforts in the ra-cial socialization process (Bames, 1980). Sev-eral studies support the notion that informalsocial support networks infiuence childrear-ing and parental socialization goals (Cotterell,1986; Wilson, 1986). Entry into wider socialsettings that are dissimilar (e.g., socioeco-

nomic, racial composition) fi-om one's familyand immediate community may bring chil-dren into contact with different perspectivesand beliefs regarding race. These significantgaps in our knowledge suggest that a greaterappreciation of the different and changingcontexts of the socialization process is re-quired.

Frequently overlooked in studies of ra-cial socialization is the fact that children arenot merely passive receptors of informationbut are themselves active in the interpretationand construction of their own understandingof matters of race. Race-related events (e.g.,racial incidents) within the broader commu-nity and social settings will likely occasiondiscussions with children regarding the na-ture and meaning of those occurrences. Racialsocialization should be conceptualized as anongoing interaction in which children them-selves provide significant amounts of input toparents, who in tum act upon that informa-tion.

While it is beyond the scope of this arti-cle to provide an exhaustive accounting of so-cial and environmental infiuences on racialsocialization, several potentially importantdeterminants of this process have been identi-fied. Future research should explore the rolethat social structural and environmental fac-tors play in racial socialization as a continuingand interactive process. This approach willbegin to specify the relationship between so-ciodemographic and other infiuences and thebehavioral and attitudinal artifacts of parent-child interactions as they relate to racial so-cialization.

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Banks, J. (1984). Black youths in predominantlywhite suburbs: An exploratory study of the at-titudes and self-concepts. Joumal of Negro Ed-ucation, 53, 3-17.

Bames, E. (1980). The black community as thesource of positive self-concept for black chil-dren: A theoretical perspective. In R. Jones(Ed.), Black psychology (2d ed., pp. 106-130).New York: Harper & Row.

Boykin, A. W., & Toms, F. (1985). Black child so-cialization: A conceptual framework. In H. Mc-Adoo & J. McAdoo (Eds.), Black children (pp.33-51). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

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