Parental Ethnic-Racial Socialization and Children of Color's Academic Success: A Meta-Analytic Review. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Increased attention is being placed on the importance of ethnic-racial socialization in children of color's academic outcomes. Synthesizing research on the effects of parental ethnic-racial socialization, this meta-analysis of 37 studies reveals that overall the relation between ethnic-racial socialization and academic outcomes was positive, though the strength varied by the specific academic outcome under consideration, dimension of ethnic-racial socialization utilized, developmental age of the child receiving the socialization, and racial/ethnic group implementing the socialization. Ethnic-racial socialization was positively related to academic performance, motivation, and engagement, with motivation being the strongest outcome. Most dimensions of ethnic-racial socialization were positively related to academic outcomes, except for promotion of mistrust. In addition, the link between ethnic-racial socialization and academic outcomes was strongest for middle school and college students, and when looking across ethnic-racial groups, this link was strongest for African American youth. The results suggest that different dimensions of ethnic-racial socialization have distinct relationships with diverse academic outcomes and that the effects of ethnic-racial socialization vary by both youth developmental levels and racial/ethnic groups.

published proceedings

  • Child Dev

altmetric score

  • 5.7

author list (cited authors)

  • Wang, M., Smith, L. V., Miller-Cotto, D., & Huguley, J. P.

citation count

  • 33

complete list of authors

  • Wang, Ming-Te||Smith, Leann V||Miller-Cotto, Dana||Huguley, James P

publication date

  • May 2020

publisher