Minority children develop racial attitudes between parental shaping and individual variation

Evidence

Allport had very little of value to say about minority children, except that they were sophisticated and social in biracial preschools. Allport observed, “Negro children are, by and large, ‘racially aware’ earlier than are white children. They tend to be confused, disturbed, and sometimes excited by the problem” (1954/1979, p. 302). … Parents of young minority children were found to play a very overt role in preparing their youngsters for the discrimination they will inevitably face. Similarly peers exert strong conformity pressures on adolescents. Nonetheless, minority children neither mirror nor mimic fully their environment; most studies indicate that minority identity and attitudes show considerable individual variation (see chapters by Major & Vick and by Jones, chs. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1996

Categorization

• SHARE: For someone working on childhood racial socialization — the finding that minority parents explicitly ‘prepare’ children for discrimination, yet children still vary individually, is a useful counterweight to simple transmission models.
• XREF: connects to: Physical and symbolic ties to homeland drive minority-race identification in children — Tatiana I. Zamora and Amado M. Padilla, Making sense of conflicting messages of…, 122; Parents’ racist normalization and views often precede a son’s radicalization — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America:…, 310; Parents socialize Multiracial children toward one of several identities they never personally experienced — Tatiana I. Zamora and Amado M. Padilla, Making sense of conflicting messages of…, 33 (+3 more)