Ethnic-Racial Identity as a Mediator Between School Ethnic-Racial Socialization and Emotional Engagement

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Andrea Negrete

Live Poster Session: Zoom Link

Seren Lurie
Seren Lurie

Seren is a graduating senior in psychology at Wesleyan University. They will be going on to graduate school in the fall. Their research interests include trauma-informed care for neurodivergent and otherwise marginalized folks, as well as research on childhood trauma.

Abstract: Objectives: The present study investigated the relationship between school ethnic-racial socialization and emotional engagement in school in immigrant youth of color, as well as explored whether this relationship could be mediated by ethnic-racial identity (specifically private and public regard). Method: Participants in this study included 578 immigrant youth of color attending high school in the United States, 68% of whom received free or reduced price lunches. Results: Bootstrap analyses indicated that public regard was a mediator between school cultural socialization and emotional engagement in school as well as between school critical consciousness socialization and emotional engagement in school, accounting for free/reduced price lunch status. Conclusions: Findings from the present study suggest that school cultural socialization is associated with increased public regard, and in turn increased emotional engagement. It may be possible that school cultural socialization leads youth of color to feel more confident that their ethnic-racial group is perceived positively, leading to increased wellbeing and positive academic outcomes. Findings also suggest that school critical consciousness is associated with increased public regard, and in turn increased emotional engagement. This may suggest that school critical consciousness socialization may be related to a more positive school environment, which itself may be correlated with perceiving that others think more positively about the student’s race, leading to positive academic outcomes.

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