Promoting pride but missing the need for preparation for bias: Racial-ethnic socialization among Indian American families living in the southeast U.S.

Abstract

Indian Americans are an under researched population within the racial-ethnic socialization (RES) literature, and very little is known about how Indian American immigrant families navigate these conversations. To fill this gap in the literature, the present study explored parent and youth perspectives of RES processes in Indian American families. A total of six focus groups were conducted with 13 adolescents (mean age = 13.6; 60% girls) and 15 parents (mean age = 42.0; 62% mothers). Inductive thematic analysis of focus group transcripts revealed that cultural socialization and the lack of preparation for bias were the most salient RES messages Indian American parents provided their adolescents. Parents' messages related to cultural socialization heavily centered on cultural and ethnic pride. These pride messages were often consistent with the model minority stereotype. Despite many parents and adolescents reporting experiencing discrimination, parents typically refrained from providing preparation for bias messages. Parents' perspectives also revealed a shared difficulty in discerning when an event was racially discriminatory. When parents did provide coping with discrimination messages, these messages most often encouraged adolescents to simply "avoid it" or "ignore it." Consequently, adolescents reported feeling ill-prepared to face racial-ethnic discrimination, indicating an unmet need for timely and helpful preparation for bias messages.What is the public significance of this article? Very little is known about how Indian American immigrant families navigate conversations around racism and discrimination. Along with identifying several facets of racial-ethnic socialization (RES) messages, the study highlights the discrepancy between possible reservations held by the parents and the need for RES messages voiced by the adolescents. These findings call attention to the complexity and importance of further studying RES within Indian American communities.

Proactive coping with discrimination: A mediator between ethnic‐racial socialization and Latinx youth's internalizing symptoms

“…Since they did not grow up in the U.S. context and are likely less aware of the racial dynamics in the country, they may feel less competent than their U.S.‐born counterparts in advising their children to use strategies such as confrontation or standing up for themselves. Indeed, one qualitative study found that Indian immigrant parents reported sending messages to their teens to ignore discrimination, laugh it off, or avoid thinking about it (Patel et al., 2023). In interviews with Latinx immigrant parents, Ayón (2016) found that parents sent both active and avoidant coping socialization messages.…”

Ethnic‐racial socialization in mono‐racial Asian American and Pacific Islander families: A 21‐year systematic literature review

“…Some studies documented other ERS strategies in AAPI families, such as egalitarianism (French et al, 2013;Kiang et al, 2022;Kim, Hunt, et al, 2023;Patel et al, 2022), pluralism (Kiang et al, 2022;Kim, Hunt, et al, 2023;Ren et al, 2022), minimization of race (Keum et al, 2023;Kiang et al, 2022;Kim, Hunt, et al, 2023), exposure to diversity (Alvarez et al, 2006;Park, 2020;Tian, 2023), avoidance of race talk (Keum et al, 2023) ERS with other constructs: discrimination (Ajayi & Syed, 2014), ethnic-racial identity (Wu et al, 2020;Xie et al, 2021), American identity (Wu et al, 2020), and model minority experiences (Kiang et al, 2019;Xie et al, 2021).…”

Adolescent-directed racial-ethnic socialization: Developmental processes that contribute to adolescents’ ability to provide racial-ethnic socialization within immigrant family contexts

“…Drawing from these models, we propose that parental RES messages, adolescent experiences with discrimination, race-related messages and conversations from peers, media, and schools that immigrant Asian American and Latinx adolescents receive influence the development of their critical consciousness (Diemer et al, 2015); together, these processes drive adolescents to talk to their parents about potential discriminatory experiences, race in the United States, and about the experiences of other racial groups in the United States. For example, a qualitative study on RES in Indian American families found that when a parent faced discrimination (e.g., told to go back to where they came from), the adolescent asked the parents to retort by asking the “are you fully American?” question (Patel et al, 2022). The adolescent continues to inform the parent about the immigration history of the United States.…”

“…Parents clearly serve as deliverers of cultural messages emanating from the country of origin where they were raised, but they may feel less confident to provide messages about the broader U.S. American context. Indeed, immigrant parents often hesitate to have conversations about race and discrimination because it might be uncomfortable for them (Ayón & García, 2019; Young et al, 2021), because they might not understand the racial hierarchy of the United States (Young et al, 2021), and/or because they feel as though the concepts (i.e., racism and discrimination) are ambiguous (Patel et al, 2022). Immigrant parents may therefore not be delivering messages around discrimination and race, potentially leaving room for adolescent-driven messages.…”

“…This change in the “deliverer” of RES messages is reflected in a recent study conducted by Young et al (2021), where the second-generation emerging adults reported teaching their parents about racial hierarchy and discrimination. Furthermore, during focus groups, parents reported that when faced with discrimination their children clarified the situation for them (i.e., explained racial slurs, identified discriminatory acts) and told them how to react in the situation (Patel et al, 2022).…”