The Role of the Family for Racism and Xenophobia in Childhood and Adolescence

Families in Marginalized Positions as a Source of Support in Resisting Racism and Xenophobia at the Interpersonal Level

As targets of racism, explicit discussions about race and racial biases with parents equip marginalized youth to build skills to cope with and confront discrimination (Hughes et al., 2017); see the area highlighted in dark gray in Figure 1). Hughes et al. (2017, p. 260) posit that, “Discrimination reflects an intergroup process embedded in stigma and stereotypes that are shared among individuals within a group and are directed toward another group.” Discrimination at the interpersonal level occurs between members of different ethnic–racial groups. Therefore, developing capabilities to cope with negative and biased interactions with outgroup members can be operationalized as a part of marginalized children’s resistance to internalizing the racism and xenophobia that harm their well-being. So, children learn to understand and deal with discrimination caused by the ethnic–racial outgroup and consider how ethnic–racial outgroup members perceive the individual’s ingroup.

The most commonly endorsed and investigated contents of family. ethnic–racial socialization are cultural socialization and preparation for bias. They serve as protective mechanisms for marginalized communities in the U.S. in resisting racism and xenophobia at the personal level through nurturing strong and affirming ethnic–racial identities, mitigating negative effects of discrimination, and promoting positive social and psychological outcomes (for reviews see Hughes et al., 2006; Huguley et al., 2019; Umaña-Taylor & Hill, 2020). Among the most investigated group, African American adolescents, parental messages endorsing cultural and racial pride and preparation for bias buffered the adverse impact of discrimination on adolescents’ self-esteem, school grades, educational goals, engagement in learning activities, negative health outcomes, and tendency to engage in crime (Burt et al., 2012; Harris-Britt et al., 2007; Reynolds & Gonzales-Backen, 2017; Wang & Huguley, 2012). African American adolescents who reported receiving ethnic-racial socialization messages were more likely to engage in coping strategies for racial stressors and discrimination than those who did not receive ethnic-racial socialization messages (Anderson, Jones, et al., 2019; Anderson, McKenny, & Stevenson, 2019). Latinx parents were a significant source of support for their children’s coping skills with discrimination and psychosocial functioning by talking to them about issues such as cultural pride and diversity (Ayón, 2016; Cross et al., 2020). For Asian American adolescents, those who reported receiving cultural socialization messages reported lower levels of psychological distress in the face of discriminatory events (Atkin et al., 2019). Taken together, these findings suggest that marginalized parents engage in ethnic–racial socialization, and depending on the content communicated, they can equip their children to resist the detrimental effects of racism that manifest in the form of negative intergroup interactions at the interpersonal level.

Families in Marginalized Positions as a Source of Support in Resisting Racism and Xenophobia at the Structural Level

Beyond the interpersonal level, marginalized parents can equip youth with skills to resist racism and xenophobia that manifest in structural and institutional forms (see the area highlighted in light gray in Figure 1). For instance, marginalized parents can prepare children to deal with systemic injustice by helping them develop critical consciousness. Critical consciousness is defined as one’s knowledge of systemic bias and discrimination in society and one’s belief in their capabilities to resist oppression through collective and individual reflection and action (Heberle et al., 2020). Critical consciousness is a developmental resource and an important skill to support the growth of individuals who are the target of systemic oppression in society (Diemer et al., 2016; Heberle et al., 2020). For marginalized youth who recognize societal ethnic–racial and religious inequalities, critical consciousness may interrupt the attribution of differential treatment between racial/ethnic groups to innate differences. It may allow marginalized youth to question and challenge structural oppression instead of locating deficits inward (Heberle et al., 2020).

Few studies have investigated parental ethnic–racial socialization and its relation to the critical consciousness of marginalized children and adolescents (Heberle et al., 2020). One longitudinal study of Black adolescents found that perceived parental racial socialization (a combination of racial pride and preparation for bias) at 10th grade (on average 16 years old) predicted increases in adolescents’ beliefs at 12th grade about the academic achievement gap as resulting from structural challenges rather than innate capabilities (Bañales et al., 2020). With the same sample, they also found that parents’ higher frequency of engaging in racial socialization activities was positively related to Black male adolescents’ willingness to be in solidarity with other ethnic minority groups and take collective actions against discrimination after 1 year (Bañales et al., 2021). The findings show the potential of parental ethnic–racial socialization to contribute to adolescents’ resistance against structural inequities.

Another way to encourage agency and prepare youth to disrupt racism and xenophobia at the structural level is through the development of civic engagement. Civic engagement refers to various forms of actions (e.g., working in non-profit organizations, organizing, and participating in protests) that are intended to support and improve the conditions of the communities or society in general (Wray-Lake & Abrams, 2020). Civic engagement might be considered as anti-racist action when these actions aim to improve well-being of communities that are historically targeted by structural racism. Thus, civic engagement can be operationalized as a part of marginalized children’s resistance to racism and a collective coping mechanism (e.g., trying to improve the position of ethnic–racial ingroup in comparison to other ethnic–racial groups in society; Jones et al., 2020). A study with Latinx 5th to 8th graders (on average 12 years old) found that parents’ higher frequency of engaging in cultural socialization was positively related to adolescents’ willingness to contribute to their community (Pinetta et al., 2020). Although there is not enough empirical support to draw causal conclusions, family ethnic–racial socialization has the potential to contribute to marginalized adolescents’ civic engagement. Taken together, these recent studies highlight the contribution of family ethnic–racial socialization in adolescents’ capabilities to resist racism and xenophobia as systemic problems.

Explicit Forms of Family Ethnic–Racial Socialization in Families in Privileged _Positions

Even though the concept of family ethnic–racial socialization historically emerged from and centered the socialization practices of marginalized families, especially Black families in the United States (Boykin & Toms, 1985; Hughes & Chen, 1997; Simon, 2021), the frequency of explicit ethnic–racial socialization messages of white parents was also explored in a few empirical studies together with marginalized families (Edmonds & Killen, 2009; Hamm, 2001; Juang & Syed, 2010; Tran et al., 2017). A notable recent shift in the literature is research on ethnic–racial socialization that centers white families to understand the content that is specific to white families and the frequency of explicit messages white parents communicate to their children about race and ethnicity (Hagerman, 2014; Loyd & Gaither, 2018; Priest et al., 2014; Simon, 2021; Zucker & Patterson, 2018).

As white parents differ in their position in societies compared to marginalized families, they also differ in their motivation to engage in explicit forms of race and ethnicity-based communication as well in the content and frequency of these types of communication. As Simon (2021) pointed out, white parents differ in their motivation to use ethnic–racial socialization compared to marginalized families because their white children are not the target of racist and xenophobic oppression. Thus, white parents use ethnic–racial socialization to equip their white children with competencies to form better interracial and interethnic relations rather than coping mechanisms to resist racism. When white parents engage in more explicit forms of communication about race and ethnicity, the content of parental ethnic–racial socialization frequently includes color-evasiveness (minimizing and ignoring race, and existing racial disparities), and rarely color-consciousness (e.g., talking about discrimination, inequality, the relevance of skin color, and encouraging intercultural contact) and sometimes a mixture of both approaches (Abaied & Perry, 2021; Freeman, 2021; Perry et al., 2019).

Even though Black and other marginalized families may engage in color-evasiveness with intentions to protect their children from the harms of racism and xenophobia, white and privileged families may engage in color-evasiveness as a way to deny that racism exists, which then allows privileged groups not to take responsibility for racism and xenophobia and ignore the institutional hierarchies they benefit from (Plaut et al., 2018) and “cloak unearned advantage by denying it is advantageous” (Phillips & Lowery, 2018, p. 158). Some scholars also argue that color-evasiveness in white and privileged families is a form of racism, and thus fosters racism by erasing the relevance of “race” in interpersonal interactions and by ignoring relevant structural power gained through the concept of “race” (Abaied & Perry, 2021; Neville et al., 2013). Further, they suggest that white individuals tend to use color-evasiveness to preserve an innocent view of themselves without acknowledging historically unearned rights. Giving up on privileges might lead to a loss of social status (Phillips & Lowery, 2018).

Beyond the most commonly endorsed approaches of color-evasiveness and egalitarianism, some white parents do provide color-conscious messages that address diversity and societal inequities based on race, and reflect their awareness of racism, white privilege, and their own racial biases (Hagerman, 2014). A study with parents of 5–14 year old children and adolescents who attended a progressive school in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, a progressive albeit racially segregated area of the U.S., found that 77% of the white parents discussed white privilege and messages to motivate their children to take actions for racial justice and 74% talked about systematic racism and prepared their children for the challenging internal work of anti-racism (Gillen-O’Neel et al., 2021).

Two studies in the U.S. investigated the relation between parental discussions about race and racism in a color-conscious manner and their children’s prejudice reduction during childhood. First, in an experimental study with white American families, parents were instructed to either watch five informative videos (with or without engaging in discussions) with their 5- to 7-year-old children or only engage in race-related discussion with their children (Vittrup & Holden, 2011). Children of parents who reported discussing race had more positive attitudes toward Black people than those who did not have conversations about race. Even without discussion, children who watched videos displayed higher positive attitudes toward Black people than those who did not watch the videos. Children who watched the videos and had discussions with their parents displayed a decrease in their ingroup bias (preference of their own group over other groups), but not in their racial attitudes towards Black people. The ineffectiveness of the intervention condition that combined both videos and discussion might have been because most parents (90%) did not comply with the instruction to discuss race with their children. Although white parents often choose a color-evasive approach while discussing race, this approach neither inhibits racial bias development nor reduces children’s existing racial bias (Vittrup, 2018).

Second, Perry et al.’s (2021) experimental study with white American parents of 8- to 12-year-old children tested whether holding a color-conscious conversation about race and racism decreased children’s negative attitudes towards Black people. The researchers created a semi-structured conversation script, audio and visual materials, and some example questions for parents to discuss while talking about race and racism with their children. Both parents’ and children’s implicit negative attitudes towards Black people decreased after the parent–child conversations. Parental stress about having presumably difficult conversations about race and racism did not increase children’s implicit negative attitudes towards Black people. These are encouraging findings as they show that having conversations about racism can reduce children’s anti-Black attitudes even if adults feel uncomfortable having these conversations.

Studies with white young adults show slightly different findings. Pahlke et al. (2020) found that white young adults reported that their parents used a more egalitarian approach compared to racemute (i.e., avoiding talking about race/racism) and preparation for non-existent anti-white bias. ⁶ Almost four in five of the white young adults reported that their parents had engaged in racemute socialization, and almost half of the white young adults reported that their parents had engaged in preparation for bias (i.e., preparation for non-existent anti-white bias). The egalitarian approach was a positive predictor, and preparation for bias was a negative predictor, of young adults’ positive emotions towards outgroup members. Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, the racemute approach was unrelated to young adults’ positive emotions towards outgroup members. This finding was inconsistent with a previous finding of the significant relation between colorblind socialization and negative racial attitudes in young children (Pahlke et al., 2012) as well as with studies that found significant relations between white adults’ support for colorblindness and their negative racial attitudes (Holoien & Shelton, 2012; Norton et al., 2006). Tran et al. (2017) found that perceived parental cultural socialization, promotion of mistrust and preparation for bias were related to white young adults’ support for hierarchies between ethnic/racial groups and negative intergroup attitudes. Taken together, these findings highlight those various dimensions of white parental ethnic–racial socialization and their relation to young adults’ racial and ethnic attitudes might differ depending to developmental period.

Parents' implicit messages and attitudes in privileged families might be stronger indicators of children’s racial attitudes than parents’ explicit messages which most often take the form of color-evasiveness. In one study, European–American mothers were asked to discuss the content of two children’s books with their children aged between 4 to 5 years old (Pahlke et al., 2012). Almost all (94%) of the mothers read the book without talking about the ethnic diversity and race of the book’s characters. Most (89%) of the mothers had no comments about the relation between ethnically diverse characters in the books. Children’s and mothers’ racial bias were not significantly related; however, children of mothers with higher numbers of non-European–American friends had lower racial bias than those with low numbers of non-European–American friends. Thus, even if European–American parents do not discuss diversity, race, or ethnicity in an explicit manner, children’s proximity to ethnically diverse people through their parents’ friends may be linked to their lower levels of racial bias.

Gaps in Research among Marginalized Families

Research among marginalized families has focused mainly on explicit forms of parental ethnic–racial socialization and has set these in relation to children and adolescents’ abilities to resist ethnic–racial prejudices and discrimination at the interpersonal level (see areas highlighted in dark gray in Figure 1). Only recently, studies have examined adolescents’ abilities to resist racism and xenophobia at a structural level and few in relation to family ethnic–racial socialization (Bañales et al., 2020; Heberle et al., 2020; see areas highlighted in light gray in Figure 1). Further, applying an intergroup relations perspective, which has focused mainly on the implicit form of parental ethnic–racial socialization associated with adolescents’ intergroup relations (e.g., attitudes and tendency to form intergroup friendships), reveals several areas currently understudied among marginalized families (see the areas in white in Figure 1). Below we suggest research areas that require further investigation and areas that an intergroup relations perspective could contribute to research on marginalized families.

We know less about the implicit forms of family ethnic–racial socialization within marginalized families and their relation to intergroup relations among children and adolescents. In one of the few studies, Verkuyten (2002) found that parental attitudes towards ethnic outgroup members were related positively to children’s outgroup attitudes for Turkish–Dutch children in the Netherlands. In addition, a study of ethnic/religious majority and minority German and Dutch adolescents and their parents revealed that when ethnic/religious minority parents had more interethnic friendships (as an implicit/indirect form of socialization), their children endorsed more positive attitudes towards ethnic outgroup members and, in turn, had more interethnic friendships (Smith et al., 2015). Future research would benefit from incorporating implicit attitudes, messages, and behaviors endorsed by parents from marginalized groups and exploring their relations to their children’s understanding of intergroup relations (attitudes, prejudices, and friendships).

Explicit forms of ethnic–racial socialization in the school context in relation to children’s intergroup relations have received increasing research interest (Byrd, 2019; Schwarzenthal, et al., 2018; Verkuyten & Thijs, 2013). However, there is far less research on explicit forms of family ethnic–racial socialization within marginalized families in relation to children's intergroup relations, with the exception of a few studies on children’s interracial/interethnic friendships (Edmonds & Killen, 2009; Hamm, 2001; Hunter et al., 2012; Mounts et al., 2013). In addition, studies could incorporate a more nuanced understanding of how family socialization relates to marginalized youths’ intergroup relations at the interpersonal level, examining marginalized adolescents’ attitudes towards other ethnic-racial/religious minority groups (Gupta, 2012; Harbi, 2016). As Haeny et al. (2021, p. 890) points out “being socialized in a society in which racism is pervasive, almost everyone had developed racial prejudices”, and some families of color can have internalized racism. Internalization of white supremacy may lead people of color to develop beliefs and behaviors upholding racism. For example, anti-Blackness is a unique and pervasive form of racism due to its roots and historical connection to slavery (Grimes, 2020), and explicit and implicit transmission of anti-Black attitudes should also be explored among other ethnic–racial minority families. Future studies could deepen the field by asking specific questions about if and how the specific contents of family ethnic-racial socialization relate to beliefs and behaviors that contributing to the preservation or disruption of racism and xenophobia among marginalized children and adolescents.

Finally, research on family ethnic–racial socialization in relation to marginalized children’s abilities to resist racism and xenophobia at the structural level could develop further by including early, middle, and late childhood as a developmental period in addition to adolescence (see areas highlighted in light gray in Figure 1). A recent study showed that Black parents teach their children explicitly and concretely about institutional racism around ages 10–11. Parents tell their children how to interact with authorities in institutions (e.g., teachers and police officers), deal with racial profiling, and be vigilant during daily activities that might lead to children being hurt and killed by police officers (Anderson, O’Brien Caughy et al., 2021). Thus, among Black children, understanding racism at the structural level might develop earlier than among children with different ethnic–racial backgrounds. Previous studies could be expanded by further investigating the relation of family ethnic–racial socialization to the outcomes that indicate children and adolescents’ understanding of racism and xenophobia at the structural level such as communal/political anti-racism action and solidarity among oppressed communities (intra-minority solidarity; Burson & Godfrey, 2020).

Gaps in Research among Privileged Families

Research among privileged families has primarily focused on implicit forms of parental ethnic–racial socialization and set these in relation to children and adolescents’ individual-level beliefs, behaviors such as prejudice, implicit and explicit ethnic–racial bias, social exclusion, and negative attitudes that contribute to upholding and perpetuating racism and xenophobia (Haeny et al., 2021; see areas highlighted in dark gray in Figure 2). Only recently, more studies have examined how explicit forms of parental ethnic–racial socialization among white families relate to the noted individual factors (e.g., racial prejudice) that contribute to children and adolescents’ intergroup relations (Loyd & Gaither, 2018; Simon, 2021; see areas highlighted in light gray in Figure 2). Overall, the field has heavily focused on the role of the privileged family for upholding racism and xenophobia intergenerationally at the interpersonal level. Less research has focused on the family’s contribution to children and adolescents’ capabilities to disrupt racism at the interpersonal and the structural level, for example, on outcomes such as a critical reflection of social inequity and community, civic engagement, and communal/political anti-racism action among white youth (see areas in white in Figure 2). Below we suggest research areas that require further investigation and areas that a family ethnic-racial socialization perspective could contribute to research on privileged families.

We know less about explicit forms of parental ethnic–racial socialization within privileged families. Even though recent studies from the U.S. have started to explore the content and frequency of ethnic–racial socialization in white families (Hagerman, 2014, 2018; Loyd & Gaither, 2018; Underhill, 2021), further research in this area is needed. As we see from the ethnic–racial socialization literature with BIPOC families, resisting racism and xenophobia requires parents to become more racially literate and being clear about how ethnicity and race shape how people interact, so they can promote competencies in their children that contribute to disrupting racism and xenophobia. In addition, family ethnic–racial socialization literature centering white families could gain insights from research on privilege, allyship, and racial justice with white adults (Case, 2012; Tropp & Uluğ, 2019). For example, in an experimental study where white adult participants were asked to watch videos displaying racially motivated discrimination, those who watched the videos reported higher understanding of racial biases, and a tendency to engage in actions to lower racial inequalities compared to those who did not watch the videos (Uluğ & Tropp, 2020). Such experiments could be incorporated into family ethnic–racial socialization research, and future studies could test whether parents’ increased awareness of racial inequality would be related to their willingness to engage in more color-conscious socialization messages with their children. Intervention studies that train privileged parents to talk about race have just started (Perry et al., 2020).

Finally, it is unclear if and how family ethnic–racial socialization in privileged families relates to children and adolescents’ capabilities to disrupt racism and xenophobia at the interpersonal and structural level (e.g., interpersonal anti-racism action, critical consciousness, civic engagement, and communal/political anti-racism action). We identified only one study on family ethnic–racial socialization and children’s awareness of racism and white privilege before 2020 (Hagerman, 2014). Very recently, Hazelbaker et al. (2021) suggested family ethnic–racial socialization as a promotive factor for the development of anti-racism orientation among white children and youth, but further empirical research on this association is needed.

Overarching Research Gaps