Editor’s note: This event has been postponed; it will be rescheduled for later in the spring.
Join the Schubert Center for Child Studies for a research presentation by McKenzie Stokes, a doctoral candidate in applied social and community psychology at North Carolina State University. The presentation, titled “‘The Talk:’ An Intersectional Examination of How Parent-Child Communication about Race Impacts the Identity and Wellbeing of Monoracial and Biracial Black Youth,” will be held Wednesday, Jan. 6, at 11 a.m.
Stokes will present a series of papers that highlight the importance of racial socialization (e.g., parent-child communication about race) for monoracial and biracial Black youth.
In the first paper, McKenzie employs an intersectional lens to understand how general and gendered racial messages shape Black girls’ perceptions about being Black, and the implications this has on their mental health. In the final two papers, McKenzie shares the data and preliminary findings from her dissertation, which includes:
- A meta-ethnographic review of the qualitative literature on racial socialization in multiracial Black-White families;
- Qualitative interviews with biracial Black-White teenagers; and
- A national cross-sectional survey of the racial socialization experiences of biracial Black-White teenagers.
This project has received funding from the Society for Community Research and Action, Society for Research on Child Development, and the American Psychological Association.
Stokes is a graduate research assistant in The Hope Lab, which takes an assets-based approach to explore factors that promote academic, civic, and psychological well-being for racially marginalized adolescents and emerging adults. The lab’s work examines psychological and contextual factors related to education, schooling, and academic well-being and investigates how sociopolitical attitudes, beliefs, and experiences (e.g., justice, discrimination, efficacy) relate to civic engagement from early adolescence into emerging adulthood. Current initiatives include work with middle schools, Black and Latinx college students, and Black families.