Relationships Among White Parents’ Racial Inequity Beliefs, Gendered Emotion Expectations, and Children’s Social Emotional Competence

Parent beliefs regarding race and gender are interconnected and are influential to their parenting. In a sample of 107 White parents of toddlers and preschoolers, the current study explores relationships among parents’ beliefs about the causes of racial inequity and their gendered expectations for children’s emotions, as well as how the associations of parents’ beliefs relate to teacher-reported children’s social emotional competence by child gender and age. Results suggest that parents’ beliefs in the existence of structural racial inequity related negatively to patriarchal expectations for boys’ and girls’ emotions. Additionally, parents’ beliefs about racial inequity and gendered expectations about emotions relate to children’s social emotional competence, suggesting more findings for preschoolers than toddlers. Promoting parent reflection on causes of inequity across social structures may be a step toward transforming potentially interrelated oppressive belief systems and supporting children’s development.