Rashmita S Mistry
Biographic Data
| ID | 630987 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rashmita S Mistry |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rashmita S |
| FAMILY NAME | Mistry |
| SIGNATURE | MISTRY R S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Los Angeles |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2106-1227 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 47 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 368 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 47 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Parental Racial–Ethnic Socialization in the Early Years
This review synthesizes parental racial–ethnic socialization (RES) research focused on families with children of color, highlighting conceptual and measurement advances and gaps for early childhood through early adolescence (ages 0–12). Although most RES studies center on adolescents, young children notice race, experience racism, and require developmentally attuned approaches. A systematic search identified 75 empirical articles. The literature …
Racial–ethnic socialization in South Asian American families
Findings suggest that MMI may promote cultural maintenance by reinforcing "positive" Asian stereotypes and that some South Asian parents prepare their children for racism by minimizing its significance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
From status and rank to report card
To advance understanding of the relations between social class and adolescent development, the current study examined the extent to which both objective SES (i.e., parental education level, qualified for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch; FRPL) and adolescents' perceptions of their subjective SES (i.e., subjective social status (SSS), social class identity) influenced educational outcomes via social interactions with peers and psychological well-being …
Social class group identity, intergroup attitudes, and views on social mobility and inequality in the U.K. and the U.S
Drawing on social identity theory (SIT), this study explored social class group identity, intergroup attitudes, and views about social mobility and inequality among socioeconomically and racially/ethnically diverse adults in the U.K. ( n = 457) and the U.S. ( n = 595). U.K. participants evidenced greater consensus about the social class groups present in their society than did U.S. participants, but lower, working, middle, and upper class were co…
Exploring South Asian American Identities, Acculturation, Contexts and the Intersections of Mental and Physical Health
Despite being the second largest Asian immigrant group in the United States, South Asian Americans are highly underrepresented in the psychological literature. Considered a ‘model minority’, South Asian Americans are a target of discrimination based on their Brown identity and religious affiliations, making it critical to examine their experiences. Extending the integrated conceptual framework to research pertaining to South Asian Americans publi…
Parental Racial‐Ethnic Socialization and Competence in Asian Families
Objective This study examined how Asian parents' racial‐ethnic socialization (RES) content with their younger children coalesces with their confidence in providing messages about managing discrimination. Background The COVID‐19 pandemic and ensuing rise in anti‐Asian discrimination in the United States prompted Asian parents to talk more about race, ethnicity, and discrimination with their children. Asian parents' discrimination experiences and i…
Engaging or waiting
Parental racial socialization has promotive and protective effects on children's development as they navigate their racialized worlds. Few studies have focused on how Asian American parents navigate conversations about race and racism with their children during middle childhood and early adolescence, even though children during this period are making sense of race-related topics and their racial-ethnic identities. The present study qualitatively …
The ball is in his court. It’s up to him”
Meritocracy-the belief that society rewards individual ability, motivation, and hard work-is foundational to many Western nations but the processes by which meritocratic beliefs are communicated to youth is not well understood. The present study used a master narrative (i.e., dominant cultural stories) framework to explore parents' communication of meritocratic messages. Data came from a larger qualitative study of family social class socializati…
Racial–ethnic socialization among Asian American families with preadolescent children
Findings highlight that among Asian American parents of preadolescent-aged children, RES approaches and practices are nuanced and differentially responsive to parents' views of their own REI, their experiences of racial discrimination, and by generational status. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Negotiating Whiteness
A robust body of research has examined ethnic‐racial identity (ERI) development during middle childhood, predominantly among children of color. However, White children's ethnic‐racial identification and negotiation of Whiteness is less well understood. To address this gap, this study explored (a) the labels that White children use to define themselves and (b) their identity‐related beliefs and knowledge. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted …
Fostering anti-racism in white children and youth
This article presents a developmental model of anti-racism among White children and youth. Informed by a structural-psychological framework (Syed & McLean, 2021), the model proposes that anti-racist development is inseparable from the structures and systems that uphold racial inequality in the United States. In articulating the processes by which children and early adolescents move toward becoming anti-racist, the model emphasizes foundational ab…
Life Course Transitions and Educational Trajectories
It’s All in the Family
Being colorblind is one of the worst things”
A phenomenological approach was used to explore White elementary school teachers’ attitudes about and strategies for addressing ethnicity and race in their classrooms. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with teachers ( N = 12) in first, third, and fifth grade, art, and English language learning classrooms at a racially diverse, rural elementary school in the Midwest United States. Results highlighted a paradox in teachers’ attitudes and so…
Distributive justice in society and among peers
This study examined how children's and adolescents' beliefs about the distribution of wealth in society and the fairness of economic systems informed their behavior, judgments, and reasoning about access to opportunities among peers. The sample included 136 8- to 14-year-olds (47% girls, 60% White, majority middle- to higher-socioeconomic status [SES]) in the United States. Relative to older children, early adolescents viewed economic systems as …
Child Development During the Covid-19 Pandemic Through a Life Course Theory Lens
The COVID-19 global pandemic and the resulting economic, health, and educational disruptions have upset all aspects of young people’s lives. The pandemic’s reach will likely continue in the near term and as psychological and academic trajectories unfold over time. In this article, we draw on the central tenets of life course theory—intertwined developmental trajectories, linked lives, and stratification systems (Elder, 1998)—to inform understandi…
Charting How Wealth Shapes Educational Pathways from Childhood to Early Adulthood
Teachers’ civic socialization practices and children’s civic engagement
We examined the degree to which civic learning activities and civic discussion in the classroom were associated with children’s civic engagement in the upper elementary grades. We also explored the types of civic activities used by teachers during middle childhood. Survey data were collected from 359 ethnically and economically diverse 4th–6th grade students (M age = 10.56, 56% female), their parents, and teachers (n = 20) from six public schools…
Urban ethnically diverse adolescents’ perceptions of social class at the intersection of race, gender, and sexual orientation
Urban middle school students (N = 1,057; Mage = 12.06) viewed Facebook-like profiles of peers who varied by race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation and indicated the social class (SC) of those peers along two dimensions-family income and social class position. As hypothesized, most profiles were perceived as middle class and above-average family income. Generally, as expected, differences emerged as a function of the peers' sociodemographi…
Children’s and adolescents’ understanding and experiences of economic inequality
The unprecedented state of economic inequality faced by many countries around the world is one of the most pressing social issues of the day, with far-reaching consequences for child and adolescent development. Despite the intensity of the public and scientific discourse on this topic, less scientific attention has been paid to young people's understanding and experiences of economic inequality, including their perceptions and beliefs about their…
Discrimination in Childhood and Adolescence
Teacher reflections on using inquiry-based instruction to engage young children in conversations about wealth and poverty
Disentangling the myth
Promoting Elementary School-Age Children’s Understanding of Wealth, Poverty, and Civic Engagement
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Subjective Social Status and Self-Reported Health Among US-born and Immigrant Latinos
Family Income and Its Relation to Preschool Children's Adjustment for Families in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care
The current study examines relations of mean-level estimates, linear changes, and instability in income and family processes to child outcomes and addresses whether income, through its impact on family functioning, matters more for children living in poverty. Temporal changes and instability in family processes, but not income, predicted children's adjustment. Cross-sectional mediational analyses indicated that for families living at the poverty …
Socioeconomic status, parental investments, and the cognitive and behavioral outcomes of low-income children from immigrant and native households
Discerning direct and mediated effects of ecological structures and processes on adolescents' educational outcomes
This short-term longitudinal study examined the relations among family and school characteristics, family-level processes (youth perceptions of parent-adolescent interactions), school-level processes (youth perceptions of school belonging, school climate), adolescents' school engagement, and later academic performance. Participants were an ethnically diverse, urban sample of 1,120 9th-grade students (M age = 14.6 years). The structural characteri…
Family and social risk, and parental investments during the early childhood years as predictors of low-income children's school readiness outcomes
Expanding the Family Economic Stress Model
The current study used a mixed-methods approach to examine how low-income mothers managed their household economies, their experiences of economic pressure, and the consequences for family and child functioning. Qualitative analyses (N = 32 families) revealed that experiences of economic pressure were associated with an inability to afford both basic needs and some modest but highly valued "extras." To meet demands, mothers reported using a varie…
Fostering anti-racism in white children and youth
This article presents a developmental model of anti-racism among White children and youth. Informed by a structural-psychological framework (Syed & McLean, 2021), the model proposes that anti-racist development is inseparable from the structures and systems that uphold racial inequality in the United States. In articulating the processes by which children and early adolescents move toward becoming anti-racist, the model emphasizes foundational ab…
Economic Disadvantage, Family Dynamics, and Adolescent Enrollment in Higher Education
This study applies a family process model to the linkage between early economic disadvantage and later enrollment in higher education. Using two waves of data on low-income youth, the authors found that the attitudes and behaviors of their parents, mostly mothers, mediate the impact of disadvantage on enrollment. Economically disadvantaged parents are less optimistic about their adolescents' educational chances and, in turn, engage less in the pr…
Social Status as a Predictor of Race and Gender Stereotypes in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence
We examined race and gender stereotypes in fourth‐, sixth‐ and eighth‐grade White and Black children. The participants reported their perceptions of the competence of Black, White, female and male children in academic domains, sports and music. In general, low‐status groups (girls and Black children) did not endorse stereotypes that reflected negatively on their own group but were likely to report stereotypes that favored their social group. High…
Children’s and adolescents’ understanding and experiences of economic inequality
The unprecedented state of economic inequality faced by many countries around the world is one of the most pressing social issues of the day, with far-reaching consequences for child and adolescent development. Despite the intensity of the public and scientific discourse on this topic, less scientific attention has been paid to young people's understanding and experiences of economic inequality, including their perceptions and beliefs about their…
Gender-Role Cognition in Three-Year-Old Boys and Girls
Urban ethnically diverse adolescents’ perceptions of social class at the intersection of race, gender, and sexual orientation
Urban middle school students (N = 1,057; Mage = 12.06) viewed Facebook-like profiles of peers who varied by race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation and indicated the social class (SC) of those peers along two dimensions-family income and social class position. As hypothesized, most profiles were perceived as middle class and above-average family income. Generally, as expected, differences emerged as a function of the peers' sociodemographi…
Socioeconomic status and receptive vocabulary development
A Longitudinal Study of the Simultaneous Influence of Mothers’ and Teachers’ Educational Expectations on Low-income Youth’s Academic Achievement
Hurricane Katrina
The devastation associated with Hurricane Katrina raised several issues related to race, class, and the government in the United States. We examined African American children's (a) knowledge of demographic characteristics of the victims, (b) beliefs about the role of race and class biases in the delayed relief efforts, and (c) views of the role and effectiveness of the government in response to the disaster. Overall, results indicated that older …
Not Excluded From Analyses
Because research on ethnic-racial identity development largely excludes multiethno-racial youth, we used a mixed-methods approach to examine ethno-racial meanings and identification among 102 early adolescents ( M = 11.45, SD = 0.70 years) with multiethno-racial ( n = 45), mono-majority (i.e., European American; n = 29), or mono-minority (e.g., Latino, African American; n = 28) heritage. Results indicated more similarity than difference between m…
It’s All in the Family
Charting How Wealth Shapes Educational Pathways from Childhood to Early Adulthood
National and Racial-Ethnic Identification
This mixed-methods study explored early adolescents’ national American identification, and meanings attached to being American. Participants ( N = 102; 51% female; ages 10-12, X ̄ = 11.45, SD = .70) were racially and ethnically diverse from primarily middle- to upper-middle class families (median household income = US$150,000-US$199,999; 75% had a college degree or higher). Youth attended a private, secular elementary school with practices design…
Being colorblind is one of the worst things”
A phenomenological approach was used to explore White elementary school teachers’ attitudes about and strategies for addressing ethnicity and race in their classrooms. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with teachers ( N = 12) in first, third, and fifth grade, art, and English language learning classrooms at a racially diverse, rural elementary school in the Midwest United States. Results highlighted a paradox in teachers’ attitudes and so…
Increasing the Complexity of Young Adolescents’ Beliefs About Poverty and Inequality
Distributive justice in society and among peers
This study examined how children's and adolescents' beliefs about the distribution of wealth in society and the fairness of economic systems informed their behavior, judgments, and reasoning about access to opportunities among peers. The sample included 136 8- to 14-year-olds (47% girls, 60% White, majority middle- to higher-socioeconomic status [SES]) in the United States. Relative to older children, early adolescents viewed economic systems as …
Teacher reflections on using inquiry-based instruction to engage young children in conversations about wealth and poverty
Children's Reasoning about Poverty, Economic Mobility, and Helping Behavior
This study evaluated the efficacy of an inquiry‐based poverty curriculum unit on students’ beliefs about causes of poverty, economic mobility, and helping behaviors. Participants were 89 kindergarten, first‐ and second‐grade students (mean age = 6.81 years, SD = .93) across two intervention and two control classrooms. Students in intervention classrooms participated in a 5‐ to 7‐week curriculum unit focused on poverty. Preintervention results sho…
Homelessness in the elementary school classroom
This study examined elementary school teachers’ experiences working with homeless students. Specifically, we focused on the psychosocial impacts of homelessness on students and their teachers. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 teachers who worked at designated public schools for family homeless shelters. A prominent theme that emerged from teachers’ accounts was how the instability tied to homelessness affected studen…
Negotiating Whiteness
A robust body of research has examined ethnic‐racial identity (ERI) development during middle childhood, predominantly among children of color. However, White children's ethnic‐racial identification and negotiation of Whiteness is less well understood. To address this gap, this study explored (a) the labels that White children use to define themselves and (b) their identity‐related beliefs and knowledge. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted …
Gender-Role Cognition in Three-Year-Old Boys and Girls
Work-Based Antipoverty Programs for Parents Can Enhance the School Performance and Social Behavior of Children
We assess the impact of the New Hope Project, an antipoverty program tested in a random assignment experimental design, on family functioning and developmental outcomes for preschool- and school-aged children (N = 913). New Hope offered wage supplements sufficient to raise family income above the poverty threshold and subsidies for child care and health insurance to adults who worked full-time. New Hope had strong positive effects on boys' academ…
Economic Well-Being and Children's Social Adjustment
Using latent variable structural equation modeling, a family economic stress model that links economic well-being to child well-being in an ethnically diverse, low-income sample of 419 elementary school-age children was evaluated. The sample was 57% African American and 28% Hispanic, and most families were headed by single mothers. The results provided support for the position that family process is a critical mediator of the effects of economic …
Economic Disadvantage, Family Dynamics, and Adolescent Enrollment in Higher Education
This study applies a family process model to the linkage between early economic disadvantage and later enrollment in higher education. Using two waves of data on low-income youth, the authors found that the attitudes and behaviors of their parents, mostly mothers, mediate the impact of disadvantage on enrollment. Economically disadvantaged parents are less optimistic about their adolescents' educational chances and, in turn, engage less in the pr…
Family Income and Its Relation to Preschool Children's Adjustment for Families in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care
The current study examines relations of mean-level estimates, linear changes, and instability in income and family processes to child outcomes and addresses whether income, through its impact on family functioning, matters more for children living in poverty. Temporal changes and instability in family processes, but not income, predicted children's adjustment. Cross-sectional mediational analyses indicated that for families living at the poverty …
Congruence of mother and teacher educational expectations and low-income youth's academic competence.
In this study, the authors examined the independent effects of teacher and mother expectations on youth achievement outcomes, the mediating factors that explain the relationship between adult expectations and student achievement, and the effects of congruent vs. dissonant adult expectations on achievement. Participants were an ethnically diverse sample of 522 low-income, urban youth (ages 9-16). Youth's mothers and teachers also participated. Fin…
Social Status as a Predictor of Race and Gender Stereotypes in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence
We examined race and gender stereotypes in fourth‐, sixth‐ and eighth‐grade White and Black children. The participants reported their perceptions of the competence of Black, White, female and male children in academic domains, sports and music. In general, low‐status groups (girls and Black children) did not endorse stereotypes that reflected negatively on their own group but were likely to report stereotypes that favored their social group. High…
Hurricane Katrina
The devastation associated with Hurricane Katrina raised several issues related to race, class, and the government in the United States. We examined African American children's (a) knowledge of demographic characteristics of the victims, (b) beliefs about the role of race and class biases in the delayed relief efforts, and (c) views of the role and effectiveness of the government in response to the disaster. Overall, results indicated that older …
Socioeconomic status, parental investments, and the cognitive and behavioral outcomes of low-income children from immigrant and native households
Discerning direct and mediated effects of ecological structures and processes on adolescents' educational outcomes
This short-term longitudinal study examined the relations among family and school characteristics, family-level processes (youth perceptions of parent-adolescent interactions), school-level processes (youth perceptions of school belonging, school climate), adolescents' school engagement, and later academic performance. Participants were an ethnically diverse, urban sample of 1,120 9th-grade students (M age = 14.6 years). The structural characteri…
Expanding the Family Economic Stress Model
The current study used a mixed-methods approach to examine how low-income mothers managed their household economies, their experiences of economic pressure, and the consequences for family and child functioning. Qualitative analyses (N = 32 families) revealed that experiences of economic pressure were associated with an inability to afford both basic needs and some modest but highly valued "extras." To meet demands, mothers reported using a varie…
A Longitudinal Study of the Simultaneous Influence of Mothers’ and Teachers’ Educational Expectations on Low-income Youth’s Academic Achievement
Family and social risk, and parental investments during the early childhood years as predictors of low-income children's school readiness outcomes
Increasing the Complexity of Young Adolescents’ Beliefs About Poverty and Inequality
Best Practices in Conceptualizing and Measuring Social Class in Psychological Research
An extensive body of research has documented the relation between social class, as indexed by socioeconomic status (SES) and subjective social status (SSS), and a host of outcomes, including physical and mental health, academic achievement, and educational attainment. Yet, there remains ambiguity regarding how best to conceptualize and measure social class. This article clarifies definitional and measurement issues related to the assessment of SE…
Socioeconomic status and receptive vocabulary development
Not Excluded From Analyses
Because research on ethnic-racial identity development largely excludes multiethno-racial youth, we used a mixed-methods approach to examine ethno-racial meanings and identification among 102 early adolescents ( M = 11.45, SD = 0.70 years) with multiethno-racial ( n = 45), mono-majority (i.e., European American; n = 29), or mono-minority (e.g., Latino, African American; n = 28) heritage. Results indicated more similarity than difference between m…
Elementary School Children's Reasoning About Social Class
The current study examined children's identification and reasoning about their subjective social status (SSS), their beliefs about social class groups (i.e., the poor, middle class, and rich), and the associations between the two. Study participants were 117 10- to 12-year-old children of diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds attending a laboratory elementary school in Southern California. Results indicated that children's SSS rat…
Homelessness in the elementary school classroom
This study examined elementary school teachers’ experiences working with homeless students. Specifically, we focused on the psychosocial impacts of homelessness on students and their teachers. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 teachers who worked at designated public schools for family homeless shelters. A prominent theme that emerged from teachers’ accounts was how the instability tied to homelessness affected studen…
National and Racial-Ethnic Identification
This mixed-methods study explored early adolescents’ national American identification, and meanings attached to being American. Participants ( N = 102; 51% female; ages 10-12, X ̄ = 11.45, SD = .70) were racially and ethnically diverse from primarily middle- to upper-middle class families (median household income = US$150,000-US$199,999; 75% had a college degree or higher). Youth attended a private, secular elementary school with practices design…
Subjective Social Status and Self-Reported Health Among US-born and Immigrant Latinos
Parent Civic Beliefs, Civic Participation, Socialization Practices, and Child Civic Engagement
We examined civic engagement in middle childhood and the degree to which parents’ civic beliefs (i.e., social trust and civic efficacy), civic participation, and socialization practices were associated with indicators of children's civic engagement (i.e., social responsibility and civic values). Survey data were collected from 359 racially, ethnically, and economically diverse upper elementary students and their parents from six schools in Southe…
Children's Reasoning about Poverty, Economic Mobility, and Helping Behavior
This study evaluated the efficacy of an inquiry‐based poverty curriculum unit on students’ beliefs about causes of poverty, economic mobility, and helping behaviors. Participants were 89 kindergarten, first‐ and second‐grade students (mean age = 6.81 years, SD = .93) across two intervention and two control classrooms. Students in intervention classrooms participated in a 5‐ to 7‐week curriculum unit focused on poverty. Preintervention results sho…
Teacher reflections on using inquiry-based instruction to engage young children in conversations about wealth and poverty
Disentangling the myth
Psychology (41 works) · Developmental psychology (32 works) · Sociology (23 works) · Social Psychology (22 works) · Social Psychology (22 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (20 works) · Ethnic group (20 works) · Political science (16 works) · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research (15 works) · Parental Involvement in Education (13 works)