Ethnic-Racial Socialization, Family Climate, and Anxiety Among African American and Latinx Emerging Adults

Ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) is an essential strategy that families of color utilize to discuss race, racism, and promote ethnic-racial pride. These strategies are necessary to help youth navigate a racialized world, particularly in emerging adulthood as youth transition away from home. There are mixed findings about the psychological benefits of messages focused on racial barriers, which raise questions about whether certain ERS messages may elicit anxiety symptoms and if there are conditions (e.g., family climate) under which ERS messages are most beneficial. Further, the interplay between ERS and family climate may vary across ethnic-racial groups. Thus, the present study examined the associations between ERS (i.e., cultural socialization, preparation for bias, promotion of mistrust) and anxiety symptoms, and whether the moderating effects of family climate (i.e., cohesion, conflict) varied for 142 African American (AA; 83% women) and 275 Latinx (LX; 70.5% women) college students (M = 18.89, SD = 1.06). Cultural socialization and family cohesion were negatively associated with anxiety symptoms, while promotion of mistrust and family conflict were positively associated with anxiety symptoms. Preparation for bias was not associated with anxiety symptoms. For both AA and LX youth who reported high family cohesion, cultural socialization was associated with lower anxiety symptoms. Additionally, among AA youth who reported high levels of family conflict, cultural socialization was associated with lower levels of anxiety symptoms. The findings have important implications for understanding the unique and interactive effects of ERS and family climate on anxiety symptoms for AA and LX emerging adults.