Let's Talk: The Impact of Gendered Racial Socialization on Black Adolescent Girls' Mental Health

Objective: For Black adolescent girls to develop a healthy sense of self, families must prepare them to cope with the realities of experiencing oppression at the nexus of racism and sexism. In this study, we examined the associations of positive and negative gendered racial socialization with mental health outcomes for Black adolescent girls. Method: To test the hypothesis that socialization messages of gendered racial pride and empowerment (GRPE) moderate the relationship between messages of internalized gendered racial oppression (IGRO) and indicators of psychological well-being (i.e., depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms), a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted based on the experiences of 282 Black adolescent girls (Mage = 15.40). Results: Findings show that more frequent messages of IGRO were associated with more depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms in Black girls. Findings also suggest that more frequent messages of GRPE reduce the negative associations between messages of IGRO and Black adolescent girls' mental health symptoms to attenuation. Conclusions: Mental health symptoms in Black girls are able to be moderated by parents' intentional messaging of GRPE. These findings may provide a strategy to protect Black youth from the deleterious consequences of negative messages around race and gender. Future studies may wish to examine the impact of socialization messages of GRPE and IGRO on Black boys' mental health symptoms. Public Significance Statement The findings of this study work to show that parents' negative gendered racial socialization messages increase their Black adolescent girl's depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Further, and perhaps more significantly, by either replacing or combining negative gendered racial socialization messages with gendered racial socialization messages of pride and empowerment, Black adolescent girl's mental health symptoms can be reduced.