TY  - JOUR
AU  - Coffey, Sierra
AU  - Beauvoir, Kaela Farrise
AU  - Coates, Erica E.
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/13
TI  - “Make Sure That Our Culture and Color is Known:” Maternal Perceptions of Using Media in the Ethnic-Racial Socialization of Young Black Children
JO  - OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
SP  - 011
VL  - 11
IS  - 01
AB  - Although methods of ethnic-racial socialization have been studied in the past, welcoming in a new digital age has affected how parents engage with their children on topics such as race and culture. While media can be an engaging way to expose young children to race and culture, the underrepresentation of Black youth in media in the United States has posed a dilemma for Black parents about the best way of using media to socialize their young children. To understand how Black mothers expose their children to ideas about race and culture through media, we analyzed five focus groups conducted with Black mothers (n = 26) with children enrolled in early learning centers in the mid-Atlantic metropolitan area. Using reflexive thematic analysis, researchers generated the following three themes: building knowledge of racial/ethnic groups through media, building racial esteem through Black media, and concerns regarding ethnic-racial socialization through media. Guided by Cultivation Theory and Garcia Coll’s Integrative Model, our study contributes to the current literature by highlighting the role of digital media in Black parents’ ethnic-racial socialization practices.
SN  - 2573-4393
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.icm.2601011
DO  - 10.21926/obm.icm.2601011
ID  - Coffey2026
ER  -