Racial Socialization Provision in African American and Black Caribbean Families

Racial socialization is a dynamic process for youth of color, especially for Black adolescents. What is less known is how the provision of racial socialization practices and messages may differ for varying ethnic groups of Black adolescents and what sociodemographic factors contribute to this difference. As such, this cross-sectional study investigated how African American and Black Caribbean adolescents are racially socialized by parents and support systems, including socialization frequency, sociodemographic contributors, and content. A sample of 1170 adolescents (Black Caribbean: n = 360; African American: n = 810) from the National Survey of American Life-Adolescents were assessed. Latent class analysis depicted two classes of socialization provision in both African American and Black Caribbean samples, as adolescents with greater provision received it most from family members across ethnic groups while friends were a distinguishing socializing agent across classes and ethnicities. Further, Black Caribbean adolescents socialized at a high frequency were not often socialized by other adults or friends, just parents and other family members. Some key demographic differences differentiated this provision, with region and income being the most prominent for African American and Black Caribbean families respectively. Finally, messages were fairly consistent across ethnic groups, save the advice to “keep it real” being significantly more provided to African American adolescents. Implications of these findings are relevant for interventions seeking to bolster socialization efforts across support systems and ethnic groups within the Black diaspora, with specific attention towards adolescents receiving “low” levels of socialization across their support system.