Cultural Pride Reinforcement as a Dimension of Racial Socialization Protective of Urban African American Child Anxiety

The study objective was to examine how parental endorsement of cultural pride reinforcement messages may explain African American child anxiety. Data were gathered from 72 African American parents and their elementary school-aged children. Results indicated stronger parental endorsement of cultural pride reinforcement messages predicted less child anxiety. Additionally parental endorsement of these messages moderated the relationship between child mental health risk factor exposure and child anxiety. Specifically in the presence of high exposure, children of parents who endorsed high levels of cultural pride reinforcement messages had significantly lower anxiety scores relative to children of parents who endorsed low levels of these messages. Findings indicated parental endorsement of these messages may be an important factor in explaining African American child anxiety.