CRITICAL THEMES IN PARENTAL SOCIALIZATION: THE STATE OF RACIAL-ETHNIC AND GENDER SOCIALIZATION

ABSTRACT As a set of strategies or skill development processes, parental socialization has an extensive field of themes. Few among them are as critical and controversial as racial-ethnic socialization (RES) and gender socialization. By virtue of its collected offerings, this special issue asserts that these themes should be viewed and understood together. My commentary explores what these socialization themes together might be asserting to the field, collectively and individually, new issues raised by the research presented, and what may be a critical missing aspect of inquiry in the field. The field of racial-ethnic socialization has now reached its adulthood. What we have learned has shown racial-ethnic socialization to be a consistently successful tool to better the lives of children throughout their development and this remains important. Gender socialization has a long and varied history of study and is more clearly subject to societal shifts in gender perceptions and attitudes. As such, advancement in the field is subject to ever-changing growth in our thinking about healthy gender roles and gender equality. Our sense of what is appropriate and meaningful gender socialization has vastly transformed. What does it take to create and live in an unbiased world? The ebb and flow of macrosocietal shifts create a vital environment where parents must constantly recalibrate their parenting to race and gender dynamics to achieve successful outcomes for their children, a particularly weighty additional reality of diverse families.