Understanding the Relationship Between Direct and Vicarious Police Contact and “The Talk”

Abstract

Direct and vicarious police contact can be traumatic events, justifying the need for parents to prepare children for encounters with the police through a process known as “The Talk.” Police persistently target Black communities, and most research on “The Talk” is limited to Black families, so less is known about engagement in “The Talk” across different groups. Relying on a pooled sample of 8,842 racially diverse 8th to 10th-grade students, we examine how direct and vicarious police contact may be associated with youth receiving “The Talk.” While Black youth, males, and those with direct and vicarious police contact are generally more likely to receive “The Talk,” race moderates youth engagement in “The Talk” in significant ways. Our findings show that Black Mixed-race youth with intrusive police contact and Latinas have heightened odds of having “The Talk,” suggesting that essential nuances are often overlooked in studies with more racially homogenous samples.