"That Was Biased": How Do Parental Racial/Ethnic Socialization and Motivations to Control Prejudice Predict White Adults' Defensive Reactions to Prejudice Feedback?

Authors

Joo Young Yang, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

Yang - https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4610-7439

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2023

Abstract

Racism and systemic racism remain prevalent issues in American, but White Americans (50%) tend to be less likely to recognize the existence of institutional racism in America compared to people of color (67-83%; Ipsos, 2020). Moreover, studies indicate that many White Americans react defensively when given feedback about their own biases (Howell, 2017). White parents in America are unlikely to have discussions about race or racial inequality with their children, taking a rather race mute approach (Apfelbaum et al., 2012), although how parents discuss about race can create a powerful context for children's racial attitude development. Thus, this study aimed to investigate how parental racial-ethnic socialization (RES) messages serve as a developmental precursor to predicting variation in White Americans' motivations to control prejudice and defensive responses to feedback about their own biases. The sample consisted of 722 adults between the age of 18 and 25 that self-identified as White/Caucasian American, recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (71.5% female, Mage= 24.6, SD = 1.1) and Introductory Psychology Subject Pool at a public university in southern region of United States (71.5% female, Mage= 18.9, SD = 1.2). The current study found that color-conscious messages were related to internal motivations and lower defensiveness, and race mute messages were related to external motivations and lower defensiveness. The current study also found that egalitarian messages were related to both motivations but are likely to lead to greater defensiveness. These results carry theoretical implications for developing a more effective and impactful approach to RES that could foster more positive racial attitudes in individuals.

Comments

The author is the copyright holder of this work, any reuse must be obtained from the author directly.

This dissertation was in completion of degree requirements from the University of Alabama and can be directly accessed at https://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/10541 University of Alabama Libraries

Recommended Citation

Yang, Joo Young, ""That Was Biased": How Do Parental Racial/Ethnic Socialization and Motivations to Control Prejudice Predict White Adults' Defensive Reactions to Prejudice Feedback?" (2023). Psychology Faculty Publications. 352.
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/psychfacpub/352