Bidirectional socialization and its anti-racist potential amongst Asian American families

To further capture the continued changes in the COVID-19 landscape with regard to the civic responses and coalition building that was organically developing, I am leading an interdisciplinary project funded by the Russell Sage Foundation to study the bidirectional socialization processes among Chinese, Korean, and Filipinx American parents and their adolescents regarding civic engagement and political participation. We are currently in the process of data collection for this project, which will yield highly innovative data regarding the complex and bidirectional socialization forces that can promote anti-racist attitudes that shape community and civic engagement in youth using mixed-method approaches. In addition, the findings will contribute to the lacuna of research (and thus, “invisibility”) of different ethnic groups within the broad Asian American umbrella in the psychological sciences. These data can inform both practice and policy to further promote resilience and positive development in minoritized families. Our lab also initiated a study, in which we examined the identity development, connectedness, self-regulation, and mental health of Muslim American youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the context of increased Islamophobia to build on our previous work with Muslim American adolescents.