Do Parents Matter? Examination of White College Students’ Intergroup Experiences and Attitudes

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the association between parents’ attitudes towards diversity and their young adult children’s intergroup experiences and attitudes. We surveyed a sample of non-Latino White, first-year university students (n = 154) and one of their parents (n = 154) at the start of the academic year; a subsample of these students (n = 87) and one of their parents (n = 87) was also surveyed again at the end of their first year. We found that, among parents who expressed greater openness to diversity, young adult children were more likely to appreciate diversity and less likely to endorse racial colorblindness. We found similar effects regarding parents’ openness to diversity on students’ likelihood to engage in campus diversity experiences, which subsequently increased students’ diversity appreciation and decreased students’ endorsement of racial colorblindness. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Keywords

diversity attitudes universal-diverse orientation color-blind racial ideology White students racial attitudes

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