The Influence of Parental Racial Awareness on Transracially Adopted Children’s Self-esteem: a Mediation Model of Racial Socialization and Racial Identity

Title of Thesis: THE INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL RACIAL AWARENESS ON TRANSRACIALLY ADOPTED CHILDREN’S SELF-ESTEEM: A MEDIATION MODEL OF RACIAL SOCIALIZATION AND RACIAL IDENTITY Elizabeth Ott, Master of Science, 2013 Thesis Directed by: Associate Professor Leigh A. Leslie Department of Family Science Recent years have seen an increased empirical focus on factors that affect the health and well-being of transracially adopted children. While there is significant research on the links between parental racial socialization and racial identity, racial identity and self-esteem of children, and self-esteem of transracially adopted children, there is less research on the links between all of these variables as a holistic model. The current study explores whether parental racial awareness impacts transracially adopted children’s self-esteem through a mediation of parental racial socialization and child racial identity. Seventy-one adoptive parents and their transracially adopted adolescent completed on-line’s self-reports of variables. Findings indicate no relationship between any of the independent, dependent or mediating variables. Subsequently, a test of moderation was completed to determine if parental racial socialization moderated the relationship between parental racial awareness and child racial identity. This also had no significant results. The possible explanations for the lack of relationships in this sample