Racial-Ethnic Socialization and Achievement: The Mediating Role of Academic Engagement

Abstract

This brief report examined how racial socialization is directly and indirectly related to academic achievement for African Americans attending a predominantly White institution. We expected that students who received more racial socialization would exhibit better academic engagement and this, in turn, would help explain their academic achievement. The sample included 226 African American college students (76% female) between the ages of 18 and 22 years (M_age = 20.05) who were recruited from the subject pool of the university’s psychology department and through general advertising across the university’s campus. Students participated by completing an online survey. Path analyses indicate that racial socialization messages about cultural pride (i.e., cultural socialization) were associated with academic achievement directly and indirectly through students’ engagement with school. However, racial socialization messages about future barriers were directly associated with academic achievement but not mediated by school engagement. Implications for studying academic engagement and racial socialization in African American college students’ academic achievement are discussed.

Keywords

GPA racial socialization college students academic achievement academic engagement

Racial-ethnic socialization (RES) is considered an important aspect of parenting within African American families (Hughes et al., 2006). RES refers to direct or indirect messages about racial and ethnic group membership and intergroup protocol (Murray & Mandara, 2002; Rotheram & Phinney, 1987); two of the most commonly studied types are cultural socialization and preparation for bias (Hughes et al., 2006). Cultural socialization is composed of messages and behaviors promoting knowledge of ethnic heritage and cultural pride, whereas preparation for bias messages encourage awareness of potential discrimination and mechanisms for coping with such encounters (Hughes et al., 2006). Extant research has identified these two messages as being widely discussed within African American families. In cross-race comparisons, African Americans tend to report providing preparation for bias more commonly and increasingly as the child matures (Hughes, 2003; Hughes & Chen, 1997). Although we know that parents tend to provide more RES to older children, little research exists on RES with college students. Of the few studies that exist, most have examined psychological adjustment (Bynum, Burton, & Best, 2007; Neblett, Banks, Cooper, & Smalls-Glover, 2013; Rivas-Drake, 2011). The role of RES on academic adjustment of college students, in contrast, remains a gap in the literature.

Theoretical Underpinnings

Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory provides a framework for understanding how different systems within an individuals’ life play a role in their future trajectories and outcomes. These systems include the individual’s family, school/educational context, and the broader society. Within the family system, the individual develops values, attitudes, and beliefs based in part on family socialization experiences. In African American families, such values often include the importance of education and succeeding in school (Bowman & Howard, 1985; Hughes et al., 2008), and these are thought to provide the scaffolding necessary for early academic success. It is less clear how such values and beliefs foster achievement in a predominantly White institution (PWI) where, as Jones (2001) suggested, they may not be congruous with expectations of the college setting. Yet receiving messages about other African Americans who succeeded could be the springboard that helps students behaviorally and cognitively engage in their secondary education, which is important for academic success and retention in school (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). For African American college students, academic engagement is an important pathway to achievement, and it is thus important to understand whether and how RES informs academic engagement, especially in a PWI.

The Link Between Racial-Ethnic Socialization and Academic Achievement

Research has shown that cultural socialization is consistently linked to positive academic outcomes among children and adolescents (Banerjee, Harrell, & Johnson, 2011; Bowman & Howard, 1985; Hughes, Witherspoon, Rivas-Drake, & West-Bey, 2009; Neblett, Philip, Cogburn, & Sellers, 2006; Smalls, 2009). Neblett et al. (2006) found that youth who participated in cultural socialization had more academic curiosity and persistence in the classroom. Similarly, another study found that cultural socialization was positively associated with academic efficacy and engagement among young adolescents (Hughes et al., 2009). Conversely, the relation between preparation for bias messages and academic outcomes has yielded mixed results (Marshall, 1995; Neblett et al., 2006; Sanders, 1997; Smalls, 2009). On the one hand, Marshall (1995) found that African American children who received messages related to barriers reported lower reading achievement scores. On the other hand, Sanders (1997) found that African American youth who received more awareness of discrimination messages were also the highest achievers in her study. These findings suggest that there are nuanced mechanisms to how RES functions within the academic context.

The majority of studies have focused on child and adolescent populations. We know less about the relationship between RES and academic outcomes among college students despite the fact that racial issues are very salient among this population (Neville, Heppner, & Wang, 1997; Sellers, Chavous, & Cooke, 1998). During this point, receiving messages related to ethnicity and heritage and those regarding preparation for possible discrimination may support youths’ success in a context that is potentially socially alienating, such as a PWI. Research on African American college students attending PWIs indicates that they tend to experience greater feelings of isolation and alienation and less favorable relationships with their professors and peers (Fischer, 2007; Russell & Atwater, 2005; Smith & Allen, 1984; Watson & Kuh, 1996). According to Jones (2001), factors that would increase the likelihood of African American students’ postsecondary education include better social and academic integration into college life.

Living at a PWI may make African American individuals more aware of racial and ethnic differences, and they may have difficulty adjusting and balancing the multiple roles that are expected of them (Jones, 2001). Spencer, Dupree, and Hartmann’s (1997) phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) further supports this idea. Within the PVEST framework, being an African American and experiencing racism on campus reflect net vulnerability characteristics and increase stress engagement, respectively, and these processes inform self-appraisals (Swanson, Cunningham, & Spencer, 2003). Both RES and self-appraisal are arguably important factors in students’ emergent identities, which inform how they respond in specific environments (e.g., racial challenges at a PWI). With this in mind, the developmental trajectory perspective of PVEST helps us understand the need to examine RES. RES from parents can be a factor that informs students’ ability to problem solve, and this sets the stage for self-appraisal within and outside of the university context. Given that the PWI context can potentially pose racial challenges for African American youth, it seems important to understand how RES may be a resource that promotes the achievement of such students.

Academic Engagement as a Potential Mediator

Studies have shown that academic engagement is directly linked to achievement outcomes, such that those individuals who are more behaviorally and emotionally engaged with school report better academic achievement (Connell, Spencer, & Aber, 1994; Fredricks et al., 2004). Moreover, research has shown that academic engagement is an important intermediary between other self-processes and academic achievement. For instance, Zumbrunn, McKim, Buhs, and Hawley (2014) found that engagement partially mediated the relationship between college students’ sense of self-efficacy and their achievement. As discussed above, cultural factors, such as RES, can also influence academic engagement (Sirin & Rogers-Sirin, 2010; Smalls, 2009; Smalls & Cooper, 2012). Accordingly, in the present study, we explored the extent to which any observed association between RES and academic achievement (i.e., grades) could be explained by students’ engagement with academic life and expectations of their university.

Current Study

This brief report presents part of a larger study that examined the effects of various neighborhood factors on mental health and academic achievement in African American college students. Several research hypotheses were the focus of the current study. First, we hypothesized that two dimensions of RES—cultural socialization and preparation for bias—would be directly associated with academic achievement. Consistent with previous literature, we predicted that cultural socialization messages would be positively associated with higher grades in college. Given that the research on preparation for bias has shown mixed results, we did not make specific hypotheses about this aspect of RES though we note that, conceptually, the PWI context is the type of environment in which parental preparation for bias should support positive outcomes. Our final hypothesis was that academic engagement would mediate the relationship between RES and academic achievement.

Method

Setting and Participants

The sample for the current study comprises African American college students attending a PWI in the Midwestern United States. At this particular institution, undergraduates make up 78% of the student population. Approximately 52% of the undergraduate population is female. Seventy-nine percent of the undergraduate population is White, whereas 7% identified as African American, 4% as Latino, and 5% as Asian.

The initial sample of the original study was comprised of 315 African American college students. Of this initial sample, there were 282 individuals (89%) who provided complete survey data. Given that freshmen would not be able to report on their college GPA from the past year, they were omitted from the sample. The final analytic sample for the current study includes 226 African American individuals (76% female) who were sophomores (24%), juniors (31%), seniors (30%), and fifth-year seniors (15%). Students’ average age was 20 years (range = 18-24). Forty-three percent of participants came from two-parent households, approximately 50% came from single-parent households, and the remaining 7% lived with extended kin (e.g., grandparent, aunt) while growing up. Participants reported on their mother’s education, which, on average was “some college” but ranged from “some high school” to “advanced graduate degrees” (e.g., MD, PhD, JD). Additionally, the average annual household income was approximately $50,000 (range = 1 “less than $10,000” to 11 “over $100,000”).

Procedure

Participants were recruited from the subject pool of the university’s psychology department and through general advertising across the university’s campus. Inclusion criteria provided on the e-mail flyer indicated that potential participants had to be of ages 18 to 24 years and self-identify as African American. Students were supplied with a link to an online survey, and participation was completely anonymous and confidential.

Measures

RES

The Racial Socialization Questionnaire (Lesane-Brown, Scottham, Nyugen, & Sellers, 2005) was used to measure two dimensions of RES: cultural socialization and preparation for bias. Cultural socialization was measured using the mean of seven items that assessed parental engagement in race-related behaviors and messages about racial pride or heritage (e.g., “How often have your parents talked with you about Black history”; α = .85). The preparation for bias subscale consisted of the mean of three items assessing the frequency of messages related to racism and the awareness of barriers due to race (e.g., “Told you some people may think they are better than you because of their race”; α = .78). For both subscales, response ranges were 0 (never) to 4 (10 or more times), and higher values indicated more RES.

Academic engagement

A 13-item scale from the National Survey of Student Engagement (2004) was used to assess academic engagement, because it has been widely used as an assessment of this construct at colleges and universities within the United States (Pascarella, Seifert, & Blaich, 2010). The measure encapsulates the characteristics associated with Fredricks et al.’s (2004) dimensions of cognitive and behavioral engagement. The items tap into students’ reports of being behaviorally engaged in their courses (e.g., writing papers, taking part in class discussions) as well as cognitively engaged (e.g., incorporating concepts from other courses for assignments; α = .85). Respondents were asked to rate how often they participated in each item from a scale of 0 (never) to 3 (very often).

Academic achievement

Respondents were asked, “What is your GPA?” on a 7-point scale with designated increments (i.e., 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5). The scale was coded so that higher scores reflected a higher GPA.

Covariates

The present analyses took into account several factors that are related to academic outcomes in college: prior (high school) grades, family income, and gender (Buchmann & DiPrete, 2006). In addition, we also accounted for age in order to account for potential differences in academic outcomes among younger and older students. Students were asked to report their grades in high school, from 1 (mostly D’s) to 4 (mostly A’s). Participants were also asked to report their family’s annual household income.

Results

Primary Analyses

Table 1 presents means, standard deviations, and correlations for continuous variables. We tested our prediction that RES would be related to academic achievement among students in this sample with a path analysis of observed variables conducted in Mplus 7.0 (see Figure 1). The model fit parameters indicate the model fit the data quite well (comparative fit index = .95; Tucker-Lewis index = .92; root mean square error of approximation = .04, confidence interval [.00, .09]; standardized root mean square residual = .04). Results suggest that after adjusting for the associations of gender, age, high school GPA, and household income, receiving more cultural socialization messages at home was positively associated with more academic engagement in college (β = .15, SE = .04, p < .001), but the direct association between cultural socialization and college GPA was not significant (β = .01, SE = .04, p = .86). However, there was a significant and positive indirect association between cultural socialization and college GPA through its association with academic engagement in college (indirect association = .05, bias-corrected bootstrap 95% confidence interval [.02, .09]). With regard to preparation for bias, results suggest that receiving more such messages at home was significantly and negatively associated with GPA in college (β = −.06, SE = .03, p = .04) but not significantly associated with college engagement (β = .00, SE = .03, p = .90); there was no significant indirect association between preparation for bias and college GPA through academic engagement activities.

Table 1.

Correlations, Means, and Standard Deviations of Study Variables.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	M (SD)
1. Household income	—							5.70 (3.12)
2. Age	−.09	—						20.51 (1.27)
3. High school GPA	−.06	−.09	—					3.49 (0.55)
4. College GPA	.30***	−.15*	.08	—				2.53 (0.56)
5. Cultural socialization	.18**	−.07	−.03	.14*	—			3.33 (1.05)
6. Preparation for bias	.07	−.05	.04	−.04	.50***	—		3.29 (1.27)
7. Academic engagement	−.05	.02	.07	.26***	.28**	.14*	—	2.33 (0.51)

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Figure 1.

Ethnic-racial socialization, academic engagement, and grades among African American college students.

Discussion

RES has been associated with academic outcomes for African American youth in middle and high school; however, less is known about its relevance to academic achievement in college settings. Additionally, while literature has shown links between academic engagement and achievement in college settings (Svanum & Bigatti, 2009), how engagement may mediate the relation between RES and achievement has not been studied. This is of particular importance given the challenges that African American young adults may face while attending PWIs. These issues may lead to lower engagement or possibly dropping out of secondary education (Allen, 1992; Jones, 2001). The purpose of the current study was to investigate the role of RES and academic engagement on academic achievement in African American young adults.

This study found partial support for our hypotheses with regard to two dimensions of RES: cultural socialization and preparation for bias. Academic engagement was found to be a significant mediator of the relation between cultural socialization and academic achievement, suggesting that those individuals who received messages about cultural heritage and racial pride were more engaged in the college context. This engagement, in turn, supported their academic achievement. Students who received more cultural socialization while growing up may have also received messages about the importance of education and academic success in their culture concurrently (Smalls, 2009). These messages may have increased their drive and engagement especially in a context where they are a minority. The study also sheds new light on the potential challenges faced by students who have received more preparation for bias messages, as we found this type of RES to be NEGATIVELY related to academic achievement. This pattern is similar to work done in younger African American children by Marshall (1995), who found that preparation for bias was linked to lower reading scores. It may be that individuals who received more preparation for bias messages did not necessarily develop coping skills that are adaptive for academic achievement in this particular PWI context. In the absence of other coping strategies, such students may disengage and not perform as well in their courses as a way to protect themselves from the psychological sequelae of discrimination from professors if and when it occurs.

Limitations and Future Directions

Although this study has several strengths, several limitations are noteworthy. For one, the results were based on the self-report of African American young adults. Consequently, we know less about what types of RES practices may have occurred in the household (i.e., based on parent report). It would be beneficial to have both reports of RES practices while growing up. In addition, the measure of RES assesses youths’ recollections of such practices while growing up. Hence, it is important to note the retrospective nature of this measure. Research that has focused on retrospective reporting has found that the items need to be salient and important to the individual in order for them to recall the events accurately (Janson, 1990). While there are important differences between current and recalled RES on student motivation and academic achievement, this study takes an important initial step in examining broad RES among college students. Furthermore, longitudinal research would also help clarify the potentially reciprocal nature of RES at home with students’ interpretations of experiences on campus. Finally, examining the relations among RES and social outcomes could help shed light on other ways such messages help shape students’ experiences in college.

Implications

This study adds to a growing body of literature that has investigated the linkages between RES and academic outcomes of African American youth (Hughes et al., 2009; Neblett et al., 2006; Smalls, 2009). The current study suggests multiple dimensions of RES may be related to academic factors differently in college settings. In particular, this study demonstrated that African American young adults who received more messages about cultural heritage and pride were more engaged in the college context, and, in turn, reported higher grades in their college courses. The ways parental racial socialization relates to youth outcomes may vary according to youths’ own experiences with racial discrimination (e.g., Rivas-Drake, Hughes, & Way, 2009). Future work may consider experiences and perceptions of such discrimination alongside received racial socialization to understand how these two processes may synergistically inform academic outcomes among African American youth. Hence, this study underscores potential benefits of RES, and further illuminates how such socialization may be a resource on which students can draw while negotiating new race-based experiences in college.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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