The Role of Racial Socialization and Ethnocentrism in the Racial Identity Development of Second-Generation Black West Indian Americans

Scholars suggest Black West Indian Americans' ethnocentric attitudes toward Black Americans have notable effects on the racial socialization and identity of American-born West Indian children. This study explored the associations between racial socialization, ethnocentric attitudes, and racial identity for second-generation West Indian Americans in the United States. This unique study adds to the limited racial socialization-racial identity literature for this growing ethnic population. It is also the first study of its kind to explore whether ethnocentric attitudes mediate the relationship between racial socialization experiences and racial identity attitudes. Furthermore, this study adds to the movement towards better analytic practices of measuring racial identity attitudes through the use of strength of endorsement profile analysis. Participants in this study included 151 youth and young adults, who completed a survey including a Socio-Demographic Sheet, the Teenager Experiences of Racial Socialization Scale (Stevenson, Cameron, Herrero-Taylor & Davis, 2002), the Image Scale-modified (Smith, 1990), and the Black Racial Identity Attitude Scale-long form (Parham & Helms, 1996). A canonical correlation analysis established two unique shared variates between racial socialization and racial identity status attitudes. The first variate indicated racial pride themed socializations and a preparation for racial bias themed socialization were positively related to Internalization and Immersion-Emersion status attitudes and inversely related to Pre-encounter status attitudes. The second variate indicated that mistrust themed socialization was positively related to Immersion/Emersion, Encounter and Pre-encounter status attitudes. Regression analyses found significant relationships between pride-themed racial socialization and ethnocentric attitudes and between ethnocentric attitudes and Pre-encounter status attitudes for this population. However, there was no significant evidence that ethnocentric attitudes mediated the racial pride-themed socialization and Pre-encounter status attitude relation. MANOVAs with sample-generated racial identity attitude profile groups were also significant. Participants in three dominant profile groups, Pre-encounter, Immersion/Emersion, and Internalization, along with a "Flat" or Undifferentiated profile group, significantly differed in their reports of preparation for racial bias and racial pride socialization. This study's findings suggest that racial identity development for this population is multifaceted. Furthermore, it seems that second-generation West Indian Americans can maintain ethnocentric biased attitudes about Black Americans yet be aware of and connected to the political implications of being Black in America. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.