Hasta la Raiz: Cultivating racial-ethnic socialization in Latine families

Abstract

Familial racial-ethnic socialization (RES) helps youth build tools of cultural resilience by providing messages regarding race and ethnicity that enable them to negotiate and survive the demands of a racialized society. Thus, RES is an important caregiving task for historically minoritized families, including Latine families in the United States. In this article, we review research on RES in Latine families, which has focused primarily on RES processes in middle childhood to adolescence, to provide an evidence-informed conceptual model delineating the youth, parental, dyadic/familial, and sociohistorical factors that shape how Latine families engage in RES. We argue that it is important to focus on which RES messages are provided, how families provide these messages, and the concomitant family processes that support RES efforts that result in culturally adaptive outcomes. We also review research on this topic to identify where evidence supports the role of these factors in the delivery of RES and to identify new directions for research and intervention.