EFFECTS OF RACIAL SOCIALIZATION ON RACIAL ATTITUDES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN PRE-SCHOOLERS

The purpose of the study was to examine African American pre-schoolers‘ racial attitudes and African American parents‘ color-blind racial attitudes and racial socialization experiences. This study explored the relation between parents‘ racial socialization reception experiences and their color-blind racial attitudes. Additionally, the relation between racial socialization transmission experiences and pre-schoolers‘ racial attitudes was examined. The average age of parents was 35.7 years old and pre-schoolers was 4.4 years old. There were 71 parent-child dyads recruited from local schools, daycares and after school care programs. Pre-schoolers completed the Preschool Racial Attitudes Measure II (PRAM II). Parents completed the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS) and the Parent Cultural and Racial Experiences of Socialization (P-CARES) measure. A significant relationship emerged between Affirmation messages that parents transmitted to pre-schoolers and pre-schoolers‘ racial attitudes (r =-.275, p < .05). However, a hierarchal regression analysis revealed that racial socialization practices did not predict pre-schoolers racial attitudes.