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Eddy, Zoey: Parental Racial Socialization for Multiracial Children

Zoey Eddy View video presentation

Title: Parental Racial Socialization for Multiracial Children

Name: Zoey Eddy

Home Institute: University of California, Santa Barbara

Programs: RISE program

Other contributors: Diana Sanchez, Melanie Maimon

Abstract: Children often learn about the concepts of race and their own racial identity from their parents, but what if a parent does not share the same racial identity as their child? It is important to understand how the parents of multiracial children teach their children about race and how this influences the child’s development of their multiracial identity. This research examines how parents of multiracial children use racial socialization techniques, how confident they are in teaching their children about race, and how they help develop pride in their children’s multiracial identity. Parents of multiracial children will be asked through online surveys about their personal beliefs on race, their use of racial socialization techniques, how confident they are in teaching their children about race, their perceptions of their children’s development of their multiracial identity, and their concerns about raising multiracial children. The information gained from this research will help answer how parents of multiracial children teach their children about race and a multiracial identity, without having the experience of being multiracial themselves.

Biography: Zoey Eddy is a rising senior at University of California, Santa Barbara. Zoey is majoring in Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College of Letters and Science, with minors in Anthropology and Black Studies. She is a McNair Scholar and works in the Self and Social Identity Lab under Dr. Brenda Major. Her main project in the lab has included studying how genetic information influences the perceptions of mismatched claimed racial identities (claiming a racial identity that differs from both of your parents’ racial identities). She has been on her university’s Dean’s Honors List for six quarters thus far, and presented a poster at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology 2020 convention after receiving the SPSP Diversity Undergraduate Registration Award. This summer she joined Dr. Diana Sanchez’s Close Relationships, Identity, and Stigma Lab and is currently working on designing studies to examine how parents of multiracial children teach their children about their racial identities, and what concerns parents have when raising multiracial children. In Zoey’s free time, she enjoys tutoring at a local high school, cooking/baking, and spending time with family. Her post-graduation plans include pursuing a PhD in Social Psychology.