Racial/ethnic socialization for White youth: What we know and future directions

Teaching and talking about race and ethnicity with children and adults is especially important in racially diverse societies. This process has been coined racial/ethnic socialization (RES). Despite the importance of RES, we still know very little about how this process unfolds in the lives of White youth. Thus, from a social, cognitive, and developmental perspective, the authors summarize findings from empirical research and theory on RES for White youth across stages of development-early childhood through young adulthood. Since RES is linked with cross-group attitudes (e.g., less bias, prejudice, stereotyping) and behaviors (e.g., inclusion), we highlight future directions for research and discuss applications for existing findings for an increasingly diverse society.