Investigating the Relation Between Ethnic-Racial Identity and Classroom Engagement Among Cherokee Adolescents: Cultural Socialization as a Moderator

Public Significance Statement Cherokee adolescents who had a stronger and more positive ethnic-racial identity were more likely to report being engaged in their classroom activities. Moreover, positive associations between ethnic-racial identity and classroom engagement were strengthened when adolescents reported receiving messages of cultural pride from parents and were weakened when parents prepared them for bias they may experience in their lives. These findings suggest that the kind of messages that parents relay when they talk with their children about their ethnicity/race can be beneficial for enhancing the positive relationship between ethnic-racial identity and classroom engagement, particularly through pride socialization messages. Objective: Ethnic-racial identity is an important factor that can promote classroom engagement among ethnic-racial minority adolescents. However, the relationship between ethnic-racial identity and academic engagement remains severely understudied among Native American youth, who report some of the lowest levels of classroom engagement among ethnic-racial minority youth in the United States. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the relation between ethnic-racial identity and classroom engagement among Cherokee youth. Further, we sought to examine the role of parental cultural socialization as a factor that could moderate this association. Method: The analytic sample consisted of 211 Cherokee adolescents (M = 12.72, SD = .97; female = 52%). Participants were recruited from Grades 6 to 8 from one tribal (60% or n = 126) and two public (40% or n = 85) middle schools. Adolescents completed survey measures of ethnic-racial centrality, private regard, public regard, parental pride socialization, parental preparation for bias socialization, and classroom engagement. Results: Analyses showed that ethnic-racial centrality and regard were positively associated with classroom engagement. Furthermore, pride socialization enhanced the relation between private regard and engagement. Unexpectedly, preparation for bias mitigated the relation between public regard and engagement. Conclusions: The present study demonstrates an important association between ethnic-racial identity and classroom engagement for Cherokee youth. Furthermore, findings highlight the importance of parental cultural socialization as a potential malleable factor that can enhance or diminish the relation between ethnic-racial identity and classroom engagement for Cherokee adolescents. These results suggest that encouraging parental cultural socialization, particularly pride socialization, may be beneficial in promoting classroom engagement for Cherokee youth.