Engaging White Parents to Address Their White Children’s Racial Biases in the Black-White Context

Abstract

Multiple studies (n=1065 parents, 625 female, 437 male, 3 nonbinary, 99.06% White; n=80 5–7-year-old children, 35 girls, 45 boys, 87.50% White) investigated how White parents think about children’s racial biases. In Studies 1–3, parents reported that their own children and other children would be unlikely to express racial biases. When predicting children’s responses on laboratory measures (Study 2), parents underestimated their own children’s and other children’s biases. However, reading an article about the nature, prevalence, and consequences of children’s racial biases (Study 3), led to increases in parents’ awareness of, concern about, and motivation to address children’s racial biases (relative to a control condition). The findings have implications for engaging parents in efforts to address children’s racial biases.