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Publication #FAR7502

 

Parenting Multiracial Children1

Suzanna Smith2

As multiracial families become more prevalent in our culture, many challenges remain in raising multiracial children. For example, children may grow up dealing with glares and comments from peers and adults who reject their family background. How can parents help their multiracial children thrive in their community?

Researchers, educators, and practitioners working with multiracial children suggest that parents follow several guidelines. First, they recommend that parents be open in the family about race and cultures. They can do this by encouraging their child's natural curiosity about differences and by answering questions about the child's own background.

Parents can locate books and movies about multiracial families that "portray multiracial individuals as positive role models" (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 1999, p. 2). The family can attend different cultural events in the community and become familiar with the language, customs, and culture of all family members.

Families can also live in a diverse community where there is less sense of being "different." They can try to meet other multiracial families and form support networks. Parents can also look into the local school system's training for teachers and counselors and encourage programs that increase understanding of multiracialism, or select schools that emphasize diversity as part of their program.

Like all children, multiracial children "need to feel supported" and "nourished" "in their everyday environments" (Morrison & Bordere, 2005, p. 7). Parents, teachers, and extended family can have important roles to play in providing this nourishment.

Listening, learning, and living together: it's the science of life. "Family Album" is a co-production of University of Florida IFAS Extension, the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, and of WUFT-FM. If you'd like to learn more, please visit our website at http://www.familyalbumradio.org.

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References

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (1999). Multiracial children. AACAP Facts for Families #71. Retrieved September 22, 2005, from http://www.aacap.org/publications/factsfam/71.htm

Black Issues in Higher Education (2003). Study: Students of mixed race suffer more health problems. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DXK/is_20_20/ai_111529997

Foeman, A. & Nance, T. (2002). Building new cultures, reframing old images: Success strategies of interracial couples. The Howard Journal of Communication, 13, 237-249.

Harris, H. (2002). School counselors' perceptions of biracial children: A pilot study [Electronic version]. Professional School Counseling, 6(2), 120-29.

Jones, N. A. (2005). We the people of more than one race in the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.

Jones, N. A., & Smith, A. S. (2001). The two or more races population: 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.

Lichter, D. T. & Qian, Z. (2004). Marriage and family in a multiracial society. New York and Washington, DC: Russell Sage Foundation and Population Reference Bureau.

Morrison, J. W., & Bordere, T. (2005). Supporting biracial children's identity development [Electronic version]. Childhood Education, 77, 134.

Roth, W. D. (2005). The end of the one-drop rule? Labeling of multiracial children in black marriages. Sociological Forum, 20, 35-67.

Footnotes

1.

This document is FAR7502, one of a series of the Family Youth and Community Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Broadcast as program 304. Published February 2009. Reviewed March 2012. In the interest of time and/or clarity, the broadcast version of this script may have been modified. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Suzanna Smith, associate professor, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.