Relations Between Colorblind Socialization and Children’s Racial Bias: Evidence From European American Mothers and Their Preschool Children

2012/04/26 by Erin Pahlke, Rebecca S Bigler, Rebecca S. Bigler +2 · 31 citations
Social Sciences · #Racial and Ethnic Identity Research #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Critical Race Theory in Education

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01770.x

Abstract

To examine European American parents' racial socialization, mothers (n = 84) were videotaped while reading 2 race-themed books to their 4- to 5-year-old children and completed surveys concerning their racial attitudes and behaviors. Children completed measures of their racial attitudes and both groups (mothers and preschoolers) predicted the others' racial attitudes. Results indicated that nearly all mothers adopted "colormute" and "colorblind" approaches to socialization. Furthermore, neither children nor mothers accurately predicted the others' views. Children's racial attitudes were unrelated to their mothers' attitudes but were predicted by their mothers' cross-race friendships; those children whose mothers had a higher percentage of non-European American friends showed lower levels of racial biases than those children whose mothers had a lower percentage of non-European American friends.

Citations

• Parents' ethnic-racial socialization practices: A review of research and directions for future study.

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