Measuring Cultural Socialization Attitudes and Behaviors of Mexican‐Origin Mothers with Young Children: A Longitudinal Investigation

Abstract

We describe the development and psychometric testing of the Cultural Socialization Behaviors Measure (CSBM) and the Cultural Socialization Attitudes Measure (CSAM). The CSBM assesses cultural socialization behaviors that parents use with young children, and the CSAM assesses the attitudes that parents have regarding the importance of socializing their young children about their culture. Both measures demonstrated strong reliability, validity, and cross-language equivalence (i.e., Spanish and English) among a sample of 204 Mexican-origin young mothers (Mage = 20.94 years, SD = 1.01) with 4-year-old children. In addition, the measures demonstrated longitudinal equivalence when children were 4 and 5 years of age.

Ethnic–Racial Socialization in the Family: A Decade's Advance on Precursors and Outcomes

“…One measure (Langrehr, Thomas, & Morgan, ) focused on prejudice awareness, racial–ethnic pride, and egalitarianism, whereas the second (J. Lee, Crolley‐Simic, & Vonk, ) focused on racial awareness, multicultural planning, integration, and coping skills. We also saw increased attention to earlier developmental periods, as Derlan et al () published two measures targeting caregivers' (a) attitudes about the importance of engaging in ethnic–racial socialization with their children about race and ethnicity and (b) ethnic–racial socialization behaviors. Beyond providing a tool to facilitate extending this work to families with younger children, measures such as these can help the field distinguish the roles of parents' ethnic–racial identity from their beliefs about the importance of their child's ethnic–racial socialization—a nuance that is essential among families in which parents' and children's ethnic–racial identities do not neatly overlap.…”

“…In the 2010 decade, there has been increased emphasis on understanding the nuances of how these social address variables motivate family ethnic–racial socialization and moving beyond these social address variables to identify other factors that motivate or influence families' efforts. These include parents' beliefs about their culture along with beliefs about the importance of ethnic–racial socialization (cf., Derlan, Umaña‐Taylor, Toomey, Jahromi, & Updegraff, ; Kulish et al, ; Richman & Mandara, ), understanding the potential impact of workplace experiences (e.g., Hagelskamp & Hughes, ), and more nuanced understanding of the neighborhood context and the balance and coherence of the types of socialization messages (e.g., Caughy, Nettles, & Lima, ). This work has largely been grounded in the ecological model of Bronfenbrenner and Morris (), with an emphasis on understanding intersecting contexts (especially Kulish et al, ) and parents' own cultural beliefs in interactions with context (Derlan et al, ; Hagelskamp & Hughes, ).…”

Emergence of ethnic–racial socialization for African American and Latinx families: Evidence for factorial validity and measurement invariance across early childhood.

“…The Multidimensional Scale focuses on what behaviors caregivers take in light of their children’s lived or anticipated social experiences. Measuring caregivers’ attitudes about ERS (Derlan et al, 2016; Stevenson, 1994) or using observational tools (Caughy, Randolph, et al, 2002; Smith-Bynum et al, 2016) can highlight planning and affective dimensions of ERS which are critical to understanding the psychological and emotional underpinnings of socializing children. Importantly, documenting the extent to which there are ERS strategies unique to early childhood remains an empirical task of the field.…”

Ethnic-Racial Socialization among Latinx Families: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…The one study that did not assess cultural socialization only assessed racial socialization (Bannon et al 2012). Five measures strictly focused on cultural socialization (Bernal and Knight 1993;Knight et al 1993;Umaña-Taylor, Yazedjian, and Bámaca-Gómez 2004;Derlan, Umaña-Taylor, Toomey et al 2016;Calzada 2007). Two of these measures were developed specifically for parents with young children (Calzada 2007;Derlan, Umaña-Taylor, Toomey et al 2016).…”

“…Five measures strictly focused on cultural socialization (Bernal and Knight 1993;Knight et al 1993;Umaña-Taylor, Yazedjian, and Bámaca-Gómez 2004;Derlan, Umaña-Taylor, Toomey et al 2016;Calzada 2007). Two of these measures were developed specifically for parents with young children (Calzada 2007;Derlan, Umaña-Taylor, Toomey et al 2016). Calzada's ( 2007) measure was focused on the Latinx cultural value of respeto and how parents practice this cultural value with their young children.…”