African-American Parents' Racial and Ethnic Socialization and Adolescent Academic Grades: Teasing Out the Role of Gender

• NCJ Number: 226025
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 38 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2009 Pages: 214-227
• Author(s): Tiffany L. Brown; Miriam R. Linver; Melanie Evans; Donna DeGennaro
• Date Published: February 2009
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the relationship between racial/ethnic socialization (parental transmission to their children of messages about the distinctiveness and challenges of being African-American in American society) and academic achievement in a sample of 218 African-American adolescents (grades 9-12; 52 percent girls) who were attending a public high school in the northeastern United States.

Abstract

The findings indicated that, when taking into account the effects of all racial/ethnic socialization subscales, racial socialization was not significantly related to the academic grades of the youth in the sample; however, two of the ethnic socialization variables (African-American cultural values and African-American heritage) were linked to adolescents’ grades, and the relationship between ethnic socialization and academic grades was related to gender. For African-American boys, ethnic socialization from maternal caregivers in African-American cultural values was linked to higher grades. For the African-American girls, on the other hand, higher levels of ethnic socialization in African-American heritage were related to lower academic grades. These gender differences may be attributed to the way boys and girls interpret these socialization messages. In addition, there may be differences in the way caregivers present these messages to their female and male adolescents. Regarding the gender of the parent, the involvement of the fathers in the lives of their sons in and of itself can positively impact academic outcomes. The sample of African-American adolescents reported on the racial/ethnic socialization provided by one maternal and one paternal caregiver. Racial/ethnic socialization content was measured with the Adolescent Racial and Ethnic Socialization Scale (Brown and Krishnakumar, 2007). Youth reported on their grades in science, social studies, and English. 8 tables and 51 references