Abstract

Black parents raise and protect children within racialized social and media environments in which racism is experienced directly, vicariously, and through repeated images of racial violence. Limited research has examined how these experiences relate to parents’ racial socialization competency—stress, skills/preparedness, and confidence—particularly among parents of young children and fathers. This cross-sectional dissertation examined associations of vicarious racism distress and racial violence media exposure with these three competency domains among Black mothers and fathers of children ages 5-10. It also tested coping self-efficacy as a moderator. Secondary data from the Rutgers Parent Survey were analyzed for 589 Black parents and caregivers (282 mothers and 307 fathers). Six hierarchical regression models were estimated separately by parent group, adjusting for age, education, household income, and number of children. Greater vicarious racism distress was associated with higher racial socialization stress, skills/preparedness, and confidence across all six models. Coping self-efficacy was also positively associated with all three outcomes in both groups. Racial violence media exposure was associated only with higher racial socialization stress among fathers, and its interactions with coping self-efficacy were nonsignificant. In contrast, vicarious racism distress interacted significantly with coping self-efficacy across all outcomes and both groups. Simple-slopes analyses showed that each positive association was stronger at higher coping self-efficacy. Rather than operating as a conventional buffer, coping self-efficacy may function as a mobilizing capacity through which Black parents translate racism-related distress into greater preparedness and confidence while remaining attuned to racial socialization’s emotional demands. Although the cross-sectional, self-report design prevents causal inferences, the findings underscore the importance of supporting Black parents’ coping and racial socialization capacities while addressing the structural conditions producing racism-related exposure and burden.

Committee Chair

Sheretta Butler-Barnes

Committee Members

Seanna Leath; Tyriesa Howard; Vetta Sanders-Thompson

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Author's Department

Social Work

Author's School

Brown School

Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

8-19-2026

Language

English (en)

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Available for download on Saturday, August 19, 2028

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