Racial-Ethnic Socialization: Korean American Mothers' Perspectives and Messages on Racism and Discrimination
Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore Korean American mothers’ perspectives and messages on racism and discrimination, and the ways racial-ethnic socialization unfolds in families’ daily lives. Participants were 17 Korean American mothers to either monoracial or biracial Korean American children. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Six themes were drawn from the interviews using phenomenological methods: (1) experiences with racism and discrimination; (2) messages on racism and discrimination; (3) messages on racial- ethnic identity; (4) same racial-ethnic friendship vs. cross racial-ethnic friendship; (5) emotions that drive mothers’ decisions on racial-ethnic socialization; and (6) coping with racism and discrimination. These six themes were analyzed based on four different racial-ethnic socialization styles. The findings indicated that (1) mothers who engaged in protective socialization demonstrated a great deal of social awareness and interest in empowering their children to understand and cope with racism; (2) mothers who engaged in promotive integration socialization promoted Korean heritage and American identity, but downplayed racism; (3) mothers who engaged in promotive separation socialization emphasized Korean cultural values, while denying their U.S. born children’s American identity; (4) a mother who engaged in passive socialization denied her child’s experience with racism and newly emerging racial-ethnic identity, resulting in conflicts with her child.
Subject Area
Developmental psychology|Asian American Studies|Social psychology
Recommended Citation
Fueting, Nani, "Racial-Ethnic Socialization: Korean American Mothers' Perspectives and Messages on Racism and Discrimination" (2023). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI30484608.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI30484608
