College of Public Health and Human Sciences

We examined the links between social class, occupational self-direction, self-efficacy, and racial socialization in a sample of 128 two-parent African American couples raising adolescents. A series of multivariate, multilevel models revealed that mothers' SES was connected to self-efficacy via its association with occupational self-direction; in turn, self-efficacy partially explained the association between occupational self-direction and racial socialization. The link between maternal self-efficacy and racial socialization depended on whether or not children had experienced discrimination. For fathers, a strong link between SES and occupational self-direction emerged, but significant associations were not found between occupational self-direction and self-efficacy, or self-efficacy and racial socialization. The discussion focuses on mother-father differences and the role of child effects in racial socialization.