Ethnic-Racial Socialization Among Turkish-Dutch Mothers: Associations With Maternal Identity and Perceived Discrimination

Abstract

Parental ethnic-racial socialization messages play an important role in children’s development of ingroup knowledge and positive intergroup relations. This study investigated ingroup ethnic-racial socialization (transferring values and practices to children about the own ethnic group) and positive outgroup ethnic-racial socialization (transferring values and practices to children about other ethnic groups) by Turkish-Dutch mothers (n = 66, Mage = 36.18, SDage = 4.34) in the Netherlands, and examined associations with perceived ethnic discrimination, ethnic and national identity. Participants completed questionnaires and an observation task. Variable-centered analyses showed more observed ingroup than positive outgroup ethnic-racial socialization, but the opposite pattern for self-reported ethnic-racial socialization. Turkish-Dutch mothers with a stronger ethnic identity showed more ingroup ethnic-racial socialization, and mothers with stronger national identity showed more positive outgroup ethnic-racial socialization. No significant relations were found between perceived ethnic discrimination and ethnic-racial socialization. Using a person-centered approach, stronger national identity clustered with more ingroup and positive outgroup ethnic-racial socialization. The mixed results showed that it is important to use multiple methods and approaches yielding complementary insights about ethnic-racial socialization engagements of parents.