ERIC Number: EJ1469894
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-May
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0163-9641
EISSN: EISSN-1097-0355
Available Date: 2025-01-26
Intergenerational Impacts of Racial Discrimination on Child Executive Functioning Problems
Nia R. Barbee1; Anne L. Dunlop2; Elizabeth Corwin3; Patricia A. Brennan1
Infant Mental Health Journal: Infancy and Early Childhood, v46 n3 p268-284 2025
The proposed study sought to investigate whether maternal experiences of racial discrimination and gendered racial stress are associated with offspring executive functioning. Total 266 Black mother-child pairs in the United States were assessed from pregnancy through child age of 4 years. We hypothesized that children whose mothers reported higher rates of perceived gendered racial stress during pregnancy and racial discrimination throughout their lifetime would have lower scores on executive functioning assessments. Furthermore, we hypothesized that low maternal education and income would act as risk moderators whereas social support would act as a protective moderator in the associations between maternal experiences of discrimination (EOD) and child executive functioning. Main effect findings support our hypothesis of an intergenerational association between maternal EOD and gendered racial stress and lower child executive functioning scores. Income was a significant moderator. As hypothesized, the association between mothers reports of lifetime discrimination and lower child executive functioning scores was stronger at "lower" levels of income. In contrast, however, the association between maternal prenatal reports of gendered racial stress and lower child executive functioning scores was stronger at "higher" levels of maternal education and income. Social support did not have a significant moderating effect on any of the association.
Descriptors: Racial Discrimination, Racism, Executive Function, Children, Cognitive Processes, Stress Variables, Mothers, Pregnancy, Scores, Parent Background, Child Development, Cognitive Development, Prenatal Influences, Social Support Groups
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) (DHHS/NIH); National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (DHHS/NIH); Office of the Director (OD) (DHHS/NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: R01NR014800; R24ES029490; UH3OD023318
Author Affiliations: 1Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 2School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 3School of Nursing, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA