Cultural Socialization and Ethnic-Racial Identity Mediated by Positive and Negative Conversations about Race: Exploring Differences among Asian American, African American, Latinx, Multiracial, and White Students

ABSTRACT

The current study examined associations between cultural socialization and ethnic-racial identity via positive and negative conversations about one’s ethnicity/race. Ethnic-racial differences between Asian American, African American, Latinx, Multiracial, and White students were explored. College students 18–22 (M age = 18.46) participating in a university-wide study provided self-reports of childhood cultural socialization, engagement in conversations about ethnicity/race during college, and ethnic-racial identity. Cultural socialization was associated with more positive conversations about race, and, in turn, greater ethnic-racial identity exploration, resolution, and affirmation among all students. Additionally, among Multiracial and African American students, cultural socialization was associated with greater negative conversations about race and, in turn, less ethnic-racial identity affirmation. Although cultural socialization was not associated with negative conversations about race for Asian American, Latinx, or White students, the relation between greater negative conversations about race and less ethnic-racial identity affirmation was significant. Negative conversations about race also informed greater ethnic-racial identity exploration among all students, but was not associated with ethnic-racial identity resolution. The current study highlights the nuanced ways that childhood cultural socialization and conversations about one’s ethnicity/race influence college students’ ethnic-racial identity, both similarly and differently among different racial groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural socialization/ethnic-racial socialization
• conversations about ethnicity/race
• ethnic-racial identity
• college students
• emerging adults

Acknowledgments

Spit for Science has been supported by Virginia Commonwealth University, P20AA017828, R37AA011408, K02AA018755, P50AA022537 and K01AA024152 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and UL1RR031990 from the National Center for Research Resources and National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research. This research was also supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U54DA036105 and the Center for Tobacco Products of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the NIH or the FDA.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

Data from this study are available to qualified researchers by emailing [email protected] and via dbGaP (phs001754.v2.p1). We would like to thank the Spit for Science participants for making this study a success, as well as acknowledge The Spit for Science Working Group: Spit for Science Director: Danielle M. Dick. Registry management: Kimberly Pedersen, Zoe Neale, Nathaniel Thomas.

Data cleaning and management

Amy E. Adkins, Nathaniel Thomas, Zoe Neale, Kimberly Pedersen, Thomas Bannard & Seung B. Cho.

Data collection

Amy E. Adkins, Peter Barr, Holly Byers, Erin C. Berenz, Erin Caraway, Seung B. Cho, James S. Clifford, Megan Cooke, Elizabeth Do, Alexis C. Edwards, Neeru Goyal, Laura M. Hack, Lisa J. Halberstadt, Sage Hawn, Sally Kuo, Emily Lasko, Jennifer Lend, Mackenzie Lind, Elizabeth Long, Alexandra Martelli, Jacquelyn L. Meyers, Kerry Mitchell, Ashlee Moore, Arden Moscati, Aashir Nasim, Zoe Neale, Jill Opalesky, Cassie Overstreet, A. Christian Pais, Kimberly Pedersen, Tarah Raldiris, Jessica Salvatore, Jeanne Savage, Rebecca Smith, David Sosnowski, Jinni Su, Nathaniel Thomas, Chloe Walker, Marcie Walsh, Teresa Willoughby,Madison Woodroof & Jia Yan.

Notes

1. Race captures the socially constructed grouping of individuals based on phenotypic attributes (e.g., skin tone, hair texture), and ethnicity captures shared cultural heritage (e.g., customs, language) that is passed down through generations. Given that individuals tend to think about race and ethnicity similarly when forming their identity, and both are similarly related to positive outcomes, we use the recommended term ethnic-racial identity (Umaña‐Taylor et al., 2014).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [K01AA024152]; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [K02AA018755]; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [P20AA017828]; National Center for Research Resources and National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research [UL1RR031990]; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [P50AA022537]; National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health [U54DA036105]; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [R37AA011408].