This community-based project explored what messages undocumented Latinx parents share about race, ethnicity, immigration, and culture to their children to explore their impact on youth’s mental health. These messages are known as Ethnic-Racial Socialization (ERS) messages. ERS is a protective strategy that many Latinx parents and communities use to foster their children’s connections to their heritage cultures and traditions. These messages also serve as tools that parents use to teach their children how to protect themselves from experiences of discrimination or unfair treatment due to their ethnicity or race. In this project, our goal was to understand the specific messages Latinx undocumented parents provide their youth. It also explored parent’s motivations to share these messages, and youth’s understanding of them.
- PI: Fernanda Cross, PhD
- Funding: School of Social Work Social Justice Grant; NCID Diversity grants to Support Research and Scholarship for Change
- Collaborators: Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights (link: http://wicir.org)
