Preparing children for racially unequal society can benefit from more support, research findings

A team of researchers led by McGill gained insight into how parents of color in the US approach discussions with their children, aimed at teaching the skills they need to survive and thrive in a racially unequal society.

An important finding of recent papers in developmental psychology is that parents need information, support and guidance, particularly when it comes to preparing their children to face discrimination and bias.

“One of our goals was to identify the most important messages parents have already given their children about race and ethnicity, so that people can really focus on them and be as strong as they can on their spending.”

Researchers looked at nearly 600 black, Latino and Asian families with adolescent children in the United States in the fall of 2020. Using an algorithm-dependent system, we were able to identify interconnected and repetitive elements of conversation, and identify the key messages of three key messages that many parents teach their children.

These messages focus on teaching children to feel proud of their ethnicity and history, value diversity, identify potential discrimination, and prepare them to deal with it.

“It’s important for parents of color to engage in socialization of ethnic races, as we have known for nearly 20 years that receiving these messages can lead to positive mental health and can help young people build strong, positive identities that prepare them to navigate our world,” Christophe said.

One of the goals of this study is to help families of colours have these challenging conversations with children, providing new information to improve existing videos and online sites developed over the past five to six years.

“Video and online sites don’t tell parents exactly what to say because it’s so individual and depends on the age of their children and the age of their children. But they aim to help parents begin the process of having conversations with their children, as they know the benefits in terms of their ability to deal with discrimination when faced with it.”

In addition to looking at the content of parents’ messages, researchers were interested in understanding how parents’ comfort and discomfort about the content of messages affect information they shared with their children.

“Parents of color often feel very comfortable talking to their children with pride in the group’s values, traditions and holidays. However, they tend to be much more difficult to talk about the discrimination that their children may potentially face.

Parents need to start these conversations early as children are exposed to racism at a young age and don’t know what to do when their parents aren’t yet giving them the skills, Christophe added.