More Than A Sponge: Latinx Youth’s Active Role in Discussions of Discrimination

• Main Author: la Barrie, Dominique Luisa
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2022
• Subjects: Ethnic studies; Individual & family studies; Latin American Studies; Psychology
• ISBN: 9798371970862

Latinx youth are likely to experience racism and discrimination in various settings. Experiences of discrimination may in turn influence Latinx youth’s socialization process. Latinx families might utilize ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) to help youth face discrimination. As ERS is typically understood to be a parenting process, children’s active participation in ERS remains understudied. This study addresses this gap in the literature by examining how mothers respond to children after children have labeled a hypothetical event in a standardized vignette as discriminatory or biased. Transcription data from 26 Latinx mother-child dyads were micro-coded using a novel coding scheme that includes aspects of ERS. Results from sequential analyses indicated that when children labeled a vignette event as discriminatory, mothers were most likely to respond by scaffolding the child’s comment. These results highlight the active role of Latinx youth in familial discussions of race and ethnicity, and how children elicit different responses from mothers.