The Protective Effect of Adult Mental Health Upon the Utilization of Racial Socialization Parenting Practices.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of parental mental health and types of racial socialization. The sample consisted of 169 African-American parents and their children (ages 9-11) who participated in a federally funded research project, "Knowledge about the African American Research Experience" (KAARE). Bivariate analyses revealed significant positive relationships between parent mental health status and two forms of racial socialization: spiritual/religious coping, and racial awareness teaching, while multivariate analyses supported the positive association between parental mental health and spiritual/religious coping. These results suggest that parental characteristics may influence the use of specific types of racial socialization to assist youth in coping with discriminatory societal messages.