Ethnic-Racial Socialization Has an Indirect Effect on Self-Esteem for Asian American Emerging Adults

Carrie M. Brown, Wells Ling

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DOI: 10.4236/psych.2012.31013                

Abstract

Although there has been recognition of the importance of examining the indirect effect of perceived parental ethnic-racial socialization on youths’ psychosocial outcomes, few studies have done so. To date, Tran and Lee’s (2010) study is one of few that has linked ethnic-racial socialization to psychosocial outcomes among Asian Americans, specifically. The purpose of this study was to extend Tran and Lee’s (2010) research in two ways. First, the present study tested a model similar to Tran and Lee’s but replaced their dependent variable, social competence, with self-esteem. Second, the present study tested the model among Asian American emerging adults (i.e., ages 18 to 25), not late adolescents. The present study hypothesized that perceiving more frequent messages of cultural socialization-pluralism from parents would indirectly lead to higher self-esteem via stronger ethnic identity. One-hundred-fourteen self-identified Asian Americans (M age = 21.34 years; 66% female) completed an online survey that included measures of perceived cultural socialization-pluralism, ethnic identity, and self-esteem. Based on model testing via the bootstrap method (Preacher & Hayes, 2008), the hypothesis was supported. The findings of the present study contribute to the discussion of the role that perceived ethnic-racial socialization plays in Asian Americans’ positive development. Further, the present study contributes to the limited research on ethnic- racial socialization among Asian Americans.

Keywords

Ethnic-Racial Socialization; Ethnic Identity; Self-Esteem; Asian Americans; Emerging Adults

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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