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Culture / Ethnicity / Race

Familial and Christian Ethnic-Racial Socialization in Promoting Activism Among Asian American Christian Adults

(PS5-A25) Familial and Christian Ethnic-racial Socialization in Promoting Activism Among Asian American Christian Adults

Friday, November 17, 2023
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM PST
Location: Regency Ballroom, Level 7
The suffering of Asian Americans (AAs) due to racial discrimination reflects the ongoing fight for advocating human rights. At the crux of social activism, familial and religious ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) instills cultural values, ethnic identity, belonging to one’s racial group, and a meaningful perspective to help future generations navigate life. This study examines the role of family and religion in amplifying social advocacy among AAs. We used a cross-sectional, non-experimental study design with a sample of 207 AA, Christian-identifying emerging adult participants (Mage = 29.14, SD = 7.4), recruited from Prolific (n = 177) and community sampling (n = 30). The self-report survey on Qualtrics included the AA Racism-Related Stress Inventory to assess experiences of racism; the Familial Ethnic Socialization Measure-Revised to measure the extent to which the participants’ family educated them regarding their ethnic/cultural background (revised for religious socialization), and the Black Activism Orientation Scale which was revised to measure AA views surrounding activism. We assessed the relationship between familial and religious ERS and social activism, as well as the mediating role of ERS between racial discrimination and social activism through a parallel mediation using the Lavaan and processR package on the platform, R and Rstudio. We hypothesized familial and religious ERS to be positively associated with social activism and mediate the discrimination-activism relationship. Results from the linear regression analysis indicated that higher levels of familial ERS significantly predicted increased social activism: r(205) = .33, p < .001. Similarly, religious ERS positively predicted social activism: r(204) = .17, p < .001. The bootstrapped mediation analysis showed that familial ERS mediated the effects of racial discrimination on social activism [a2 = .09 (p = .03); b2 = .23 (p < .001); B = .02, 95% CI: .00, .09). However, religious ERS did not mediate this pathway [a1 = .10 (p = .08); b1 = -.001 (p = .99); B = -.0001, 95% CI: -.13, .17]. Overall, 21.53% of the variance in social activism was explained by the three variables in the model. These findings address the importance of applying cultural contexts learned from family in dealing with discrimination and uncovering the impact of religious contexts in the AA Christian community. Studying these pathways can aid in protecting AA Christians from race-related distress and inform the integration of Christian theology and psychological science. Future research will need to consider the diversity of beliefs and practices within the Christian religion that interact with AA families and culture to understand what underlies one's call for social action.