Pre-Registration
Creators: name: McLean, Kate
name: Gonzalez, Antonya
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences

description: Pre-Registration for Parent Child Conversations about Inequality PIs: Kate C. McLean &amp; Antonya Gonzalez Theoretical foundation The overarching goal of our program of research is to understand how parent-child conversations about systemic inequity can both perpetuate and disrupt the intergenerational transmission of beliefs that serve to maintain the status quo of race- and wealth-based disparities in the United States. In the current project we utilize the ecologically valid and common context of parent-child conversations to target a place where such beliefs about systems may be transmitted. We will examine how parents and children talk about systemic racism and income inequality, and how they view those cultural issues as relevant (or not) to their own psychological experience and lives. Our primary aim for the current project is to test a method to assess the content of how parents talk to their middle-school aged children (6th – 8th grade) about systemic inequity, as well as the variation in that content. We have chosen to focus on middle-school aged children because their proximal environments grow more diverse at this stage, parents are more willing to talk about such issues at this age (though some discuss such issues far earlier, of course), they have greater cognitive abilities to understand the complexity of the issues, and this is a period in development when interests in social change and activism may begin to form (see Anyiwo et al., 2018; Seider et al., 2019; Youniss et al., 2002). Our research questions include: 1. How do parents discuss systemic inequities (if they do)? 2. What role do children play in these conversations? 3. How much “match” is there across the assessments (i.e., pre-conversation survey, conversation, post-conversation), and where is there divergence? Methods Given that our research questions are primarily descriptive, we have designed an observational qualitative study of conversational process. Such a methodology has been successfully used in the past with two studies examining socialization of gender identity (e.g., McLean et al., 2019; 2020). We aim to collect data with 20 dyads, a number that is similar to past projects of similar design (McLean et al., 2017; 2019), and consistent with qualitative designs (e.g., Braun et al. 2019). We will also aim to recruit dyads that vary on SES and ethnic/racial identity. Participants will be recruited from a developmental database of families willing to participate in research, housed within the Psychology Department at WWU, as well as through flyering around town, emailing across campus, and snowball sampling. For the study protocol RAs will provide materials (see link for all materials) for the dyad to read, written at a grade-school level, which describe data on wealth and racial disparities. Participants will be asked to read the materials and complete a short survey with open-ended questions about the survey, as well as a demographics form. Participants will then have a 15-minute conversation to discuss the materials, and will be encouraged to share their own experiences and observations and to ask questions of each other. Once finished with the conversational task, they will complete a play-back interview. In this interview an RA re-plays the conversation for the parent or child (in separate rooms), and asks them to comment on the conversation, noting places they would like to clarify what was said, or comment on issues unsaid. The RA will also be instructed to ask questions about moments in the conversation that appear awkward or difficult. Finally, they will answer a few interview questions about the conversation broadly (note that the Co-I has used a similar design for conversations about gender-based disparities with success; McLean et al., 2016; 2019) Our analytic framework will be guided by a consensus process rather than formal reliability, given the small sample size and intention to conduct an interpretive, in-depth analysis (Syed &amp; Nelson, 2015). This allows for, “the discovery of experiences and subtle processes that might otherwise go unnoticed” in comparison to the analysis of larger datasets that require coding in broader strokes (Syed &amp; Nelson, 2015, p. 9). Critical to a consensus process is creating a diverse interpretive community, and triangulation between data and interpretation (Merriam, 2009). Consistent with this approach, the purpose is not to generalize across persons, but to identify discursive processes related to the socialization of ideology around inequality. We will take a Thematic Analysis approach (see Clarke et al., 2015). After data collection and transcription is complete, we will engage in the process of familiarization by reading several sets of materials per each dyad. We expect to be guided by the Research Questions listed above, but after the familiarization phase, we will revisit them, and update the pre-registration as necessary. Our team will consist of two professors and several undergraduate students. Funding This project is funded by: 1) Internal grant from WWU Research and Sponsored Projects Pilot Project Award: The Intergenerational Transmission of Beliefs about Systemic Inequity” ($5,000). 2) Internal grant from WWU Center for Cross-Cultural Research: The Intergenerational Transmission of Beliefs about Systemic Inequity” ($20,000).