Abstract
The present study examined whether Latinx parents’ perceptions of personal discrimination and perception of biases against Latinx people in the United States, along with their engagement with their elementary school children, predicted their conversations with their children about discrimination, and whether those conversations were related to children’s own perceptions of school-based discrimination. The study consisted of phone interviews with Latinx immigrant parents (n = 66, 71% mothers) from a predominantly White community and school-based interviews with their third and fourth grade children (n = 66). The children’s first interviews were conducted in the spring of one school year, parental interviews were conducted over the mediating summer, and children’s second interviews were conducted in the following school year. Results indicated that parents’ perception of bias against Latinos predicted their conversations about discrimination with their children, but this effect was moderated by parental engagement, such that perceptions of discrimination only predict conversations about discrimination among highly engaged parents. Furthermore, children whose parents talked about discrimination more frequently were more likely to report perceiving discrimination from peers and teachers, over and above their earlier perceptions of discrimination.
Highlights
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Among highly engaged Latinx immigrant parents, their perception of bias positively predicted their conversations about discrimination with their children.
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Children’s perceptions of discrimination from peers and teachers were positively predicted by parent discussions about bias.
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This research was funded by Foundation of Child Development and UK Center for Poverty Research.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Kentucky.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Parents gave written consent and children gave verbal assent for children’s participation. Parents gave verbal assent for their own participation.
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Brown, C.S., Kahng, S., Tam, M.J. et al. Latinx Parents’ Perception of Discrimination and Ethnic/Racial Socialization Predict Their Elementary School Children’s Perceptions of Discrimination. J Child Fam Stud 31, 1645–1655 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02315-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02315-z