Socialization and Parenting in Underrepresented Families: A Commentary on this Special Issue Section

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Shauna M. Cooper
• Date: 01 December 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12797

EDITORIAL

Socialization and Parenting in Underrepresented

Families: A Commentary on this Special Issue Section

As we continue to advance equity and work to dismantle structural discrimination, we must

carefully examine and interrogate our approaches and methods. The articles offered in the

special issue section “Parenting and Socialization in Underrepresented Families”highlight

racialized families’experiences, revealing how racism and discrimination can influence indi-

vidual well-being, parenting, and family systems. While highlighting similarities across

racialized families, these collective works also speak to areas of divergence and variation in

how parents negotiate their own race-related stressors and awareness of the need to arm

their children with strategies for navigating racialized experiences and promoting positive

development. The articles provide insights that inform theory, research, and practice in fam-

ily science and across the disciplines. In this brief commentary, I highlight the thematic con-

tributions of this collective work: (a) attention to diverse family and social contexts,

(b) developmental context (still) matters, (c) dynamicity and transaction, and (d) inclusion

of fathers’perspectives and attention to their parenting contributions.

ATTENTION TO DIVERSE FAMILY AND SOCIAL CONTEXTS

Investigators have suggested the need to understand racial socialization within broader fam-

ily processes (Anderson & Stevenson, 2019; Cooper & McLoyd, 2011; Umaña-Taylor &

Hill, 2020). With attention to racialized, multiethnic, transracial adoptive, and immigrant

families, this special issue section underscores the importance of exploring racial socializa-

tion processes across diverse family and social contexts. The authors of these articles leverage

theoretically grounded methodological approaches that reflect the lived experiences of

racialized parents and children and how this may influence socialization processes and prac-

tices. For example, employing a mixed-method approach, Lloyd et al. explore African

American mothers’racial socialization of their preschool-age children, noting messages

about racial mindfulness and behavior management primary socialization domains. Also,

Gonzalez et al. capture preparation for bias socialization among racialized families. This

investigation revealed some areas of divergence between African American and immigrant

families, moving beyond frequency comparison to focus on the underlying processes and

contexts that guide parents’socialization approaches. Noting that almost one out of four

adoptive families are transracial, Hrapczynski and colleagues ask a critical question: How

might family functioning be associated with White adoptive parents’communication of

racial socialization messages to their children? Providing some insight into this question, the

authors examine how two dimensions of family functioning (expressiveness and cohesion)

inform cultural socialization and preparation for bias messages. Noting some differences

between adolescent and parent report, these scholars highlight the role of other mechanisms,

including other household dynamics and parents’antiracism ideologies and racial identity

development (Leslie et al., 2013).

Received: 13 October 2022Accepted: 14 October 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12797

© 2022 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2022;71:1973–1976. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 1973