Project abstract:

Salient parental practices among parents of color are strategies aimed at teaching their children what it means to be a member of their ethnic-racial group. Parents use practices such as instilling in their children a sense of cultural pride, preparing their children to deal with bias, and teaching that hard work will address issues of inequality. These are examples of ethnic-racial socialization and the overarching aim of these practices is to transmit ethnic and racial information from adults to children (Hughes et al., 2006). Ethnic-racial socialization practices are directly related to the development of ethnic-racial identity which has been found to be promotive and protective. Instilling a positive sense of ethnic-racial identity to balance the negative effects of discrimination, such as poor well-being and academic achievement, can be helpful to Latinx children. However, the ethnic-racial socialization practices of Latinx families may differ due to each group’s distinct sociohistorical features; therefore, there is value in studying them separately (Perez-Brena et al., 2018). The practices parents engage in when socializing their children’s understanding of race and ethnicity are grounded in the specific experiences of the family’s ethnic-racial group. This mixed-methods study aims to understand the ethnic-racial socialization practices of Dominican mothers with their young children considering the sociohistorical context of Dominicans in the U.S. through quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews.

Description of summer undergraduate work, including timeline

Suggested Timeline: 6-8 weeks

Suggested Activities of Research Assistant: (contingent on study's progress)

• Read research proposal
• Sample recruitment, including creating recruitment materials
• Screening participant eligibility
• Clean quantitative data
• Dummy coding quantitative data
• Participate in development of interview protocol
• Pilot interview protocol

All activities can happen virtually. Regular meetings can take place virtually via Zoom, files can be shared via OneDrive, and analysis activities can take place with the "at home" versions of SPSS offered by Loyola. If student's technology does not allow for analysis software, there are other possible duties that do not require it.