Discrimination Concerns and Expectations as Explanations for Gendered Socialization in African American Families

Abstract

Discrimination concerns and parental expectations were examined as mediators of the relations between gender and parenting practices among 796 African American mothers of 11- to 14-year-olds from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study. Mothers of sons had more concerns about racial discrimination impacting their adolescents' future, whereas mothers of daughters had more gender discrimination concerns. Racial discrimination concerns, but not gender discrimination concerns, were related to lower maternal academic and behavioral expectations. Maternal expectations were related to mothers' responsiveness, rule enforcement, monitoring, and parent-adolescent conflict. The relations between gender and parenting practices were partially explained through mothers' racial discrimination concerns and expectations. These findings demonstrate the importance of contextual factors on African American family processes.

Black Mothers' Perceptions of the Role of Race in Children's Education

“…In addition, Goff, Jackson, Di Leone, Culotta, and DiTomasso () found that Black boys at 10 years of age were deemed less innocent than their White peers, particularly in a justice system context. Mothers' concerns were also consistent with quantitative research in which Black mothers expressed concern that their sons would experience racial discrimination in school (Varner & Mandara, ) and work finding that Black parents are more likely to talk to their sons about racial discrimination and bias (Bowman & Howard, ).…”

The Importance of Racial Socialization: School‐Based Racial Discrimination and Racial Identity Among African American Adolescent Boys and Girls

“…In addition to behavioral messages, racial barrier messages also mediated the positive association between discrimination and centrality for girls. This finding highlights how gender may influence how parents respond differently to boys' and girls' discrimination experiences (Brown, Tanner-Smith, Lesane-Brown, & Ezell, 2007;Varner & Mandara, 2013). It is interesting that racial barrier messages did not mediate associations with centrality for boys, although they reported more frequent discrimination and racial barrier socialization than girls.…”

The Role of Cognitive Stimulation in the Home and Maternal Responses to Low Grades in Low-Income African American Adolescents’ Academic Achievement

“…These studies have shown that African American mothers are more emotionally responsive to girls, monitor girls more, enforce more rules directed at girls' behavior, and have higher educational and career expectations for girls (Mandara et al 2012;Mandara 2013a, 2013b). On the other hand, mothers report more conflict with boys than girls (Varner and Mandara 2013a).…”