Parents’ and Peers’ Messages about Race: Associations with White Emerging Adults’ Responses to Feedback about Implicit Bias

Abstract

Although much research has focused on parents’ role in racial and ethnic socialization, the influence of peers on how youth perceive race in society remains underexplored despite peers’ significant impact on youth identity and social-cognitive development. This study examined how peer and parental messages about race compare in shaping young adults’ responses to prejudice feedback. Participants were White emerging adults (n = 726, 75.3% female, M_age = 20.1, SD = 2.6). Participants reported parents and peers’ messages about race and their own motivations to control prejudice. They then completed the race Implicit Association Test and received false feedback indicating a pro-White bias. Subsequently, participants’ feedback invalidation and willingness to change behaviors to reduce bias were assessed. Parental and peer egalitarian and color-conscious messages were positively associated with behavioral willingness to reduce bias and internal motivations to control prejudice explained these relations. Peer egalitarian messages were more influential than parents’ egalitarian messages on internal motivations to control prejudice and behavioral willingness to reduce bias. Findings highlight the unique role of peers’ and parents’ messages about race on motivations to control prejudice and emerging adults’ responses to prejudice feedback.