A Dyadic Analysis of Racial-Ethnic Socialization Among Black-White Interracial Parents

Abstract

Interracial couples face unique parenting challenges. Black-White interracial couples, in particular, are responsible for fostering the healthy racial-ethnic identity development of their children who do not necessarily share their same racial-ethnic background (Stevenson, 1995) in a society pervasively impacted by oppression and racial discrimination (Hughes, Rodriguez et al., 2006). Although much has been written about the process of racial-ethnic socialization, most of this research has focused on monoracial families of color and cannot necessarily be generalized to multiracial families, where individual family members vary in racial-ethnic background. In order to extend this area of research to the experiences of multiracial families, the dyadic reports of Black-White interracial parents efforts to engage in different forms of racial-ethnic socialization were examined. Among a sample of 114 interracial couples where each dyad consists of one Black parent and one White parent, the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006) examined actor and partner effects of colorblind racial attitudes and Black racial identity on different forms of racial-ethnic socialization. Results demonstrated the interdependent nature of racial-ethnic socialization practices among Black-White interracial couples.