Black Children’s Learning Tied to Racial Awareness

How young black children learn about race may affect their cognitive and behavioral development, confirm results of a recent study conducted by behavioral scientists at The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston.

The results are published in a recent issue of the journal Child Development.

“This is the first study to look at the influence of racial socialization practices on the development of very young children,” said lead study author Margaret O’Brien Caughy, Sc.D., assistant professor of behavioral sciences at the UT-Houston School of Public Health’s Dallas Regional Campus.

The study’s authors define racial socialization as the act of communicating messages about race to children “who are black in a society in which being black has negative connotations.” Depending on parents’ values, racial socialization can emphasize achievement, morality, racial equality and self esteem, the minority experience (including awareness of discrimination), or black culture.

Caughy and her colleagues conducted home visits with 200 African-American families in Baltimore, Md., all with children between 3 and 4.5 years of age. They interviewed primary caregivers and their children, and administered surveys to measure cognitive and behavioral skills, social development and racial socialization. The racial socialization survey measured racial pride, preparation for racial bias, spirituality, and the degree to which parents influenced their children to mistrust other ethnicities. The researchers also measured racial socialization in the home environment by noting the presence of items such as Afrocentric toys, fabrics and prints.

“The prevalence of racial socialization messages utilized by these African-American parents of very young children was surprisingly high,” Caughy said.

Some types of racial socialization were more popular than others. Nearly 90 percent of parents conveyed racial or cultural pride messages, while only 64 percent reported promoting mistrust. Children studied were equally likely to get racial socialization messages whether their parents were rich or poor, well educated or not, and whether the children were male or female.

Children from homes rich in African-American culture had greater factual knowledge and better problem-solving skills. Also, racial pride was associated with fewer behavior problems.

“Our findings suggest that racial socialization practices and home environments can impact cognitive and behavioral outcomes for very young African-American children,” Caughy said.

The researchers suggest that future studies examine the long-term effects of socialization practices on the cognitive and behavioral development of children.

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