Dr. Denzel Jones, Marriage & Family Therapy (MFT) Assistant Professor, along with Pia Alexander and Amelia Flynn, second-year MA MFT students, presented their research at the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) Annual Conference November 20 – 23 in Fort Worth Texas.
The Impact of Socialization Agents’ Ethnic-Racial Identity on Communication and Socialization Processes focuses on the ethnic-racial identity (ERI) of Black emerging adults and their communication processes as socializing agents (SAs). Findings suggest Black SAs with low ERI saliency differ in communication processes compared to Black SAs with greater ERI engagement. More specifically, Black SAs with low ERI engagement communicate less prominent egalitarian messages to other Black people compared to Black SAs with greater ERI engagement. Since Black SAs with low ERI saliency engage less actively in their own identity development processes, they may also be less likely to communicate messages of equity than most other Black SAs. Interestingly, Black SAs with low ERI engagement may also be more unaware of their communication behaviors compared to Black SAs with greater ERI engagement, resulting in unintentional negative socialization processes.
