Mexican American children's ethnic identity, understanding of ethnic prejudice, and parental ethnic socialization

Mexican American children in Grades 2 (n = 22) and 6 (n = 25) were intervie wed about their understanding of ethnic prejudice and were administered two indices of ethnic identity (ethnic knowledge and ethnic behavior). Most of the children (n = 19) were third generation or later (no parent or grandpa rent born in Mexico), bur Ir had at least one parent born in Mexico. Parent s of the children were administered acculturation and ethnic socialization measures. Study results suggested that (a)parental ethnic socialization abo ut ethnic discrimination was associated with children's development of ethn ic knowledge, (b) low levels of parental acculturation to Angle norms were associated with children performing ethnic behaviors, and (c) children's ad vanced understanding of ethnic prejudice was associated with high levels of ethnic knowledge and higher grade levels. These results support and extend Bernal, Knight, Garza, Ocampo, and Cota's multifaceted model of ethnic ide ntity: One aspect of ethnic identity (i.e., ethnic knowledge) was predictiv e of children's understanding of ethnic prejudice, whereas another index (i .e., ethnic behavior) was not Moreover, this study's results support Quinta na and Vera's model of children's developmental understanding of ethnic pre judice. This study suggests that children's understanding of ethnic prejudi ce represents an important aspect of the development of Mexican American. c hildren.