Ethnic-Racial Socialization and Its Correlates in Families of Black-White Biracial Children

Child, family, and contextual correlates of ethnic-racial socialization among U.S. families of 293 kindergarten-age Black-White biracial children were investigated in this study. Children with one White-identified and one Blackidentified biological parent who were enrolled in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort participated in this study. Parents' racial identification of children, parent age, family socioeconomic status, urbanicity, and region of country predicted the likelihood of frequent ethnic-racial socialization. Relative to their biracially and Black-identified peers, White-identified biracial children were less likely to have frequent discussions about ethnicracial heritage. Findings suggest that ethnicracial socialization is a prevalent parenting practice in families of young biracial children and that its frequency varies depending on child, family, and situational factors. Implications for practice are discussed.