Gordon, Kendra Landor, A. M., Simons, L., Simons, R. L., Brody, g H., Bryant, C. M., Gibbons, F. X.

, & Melby, J. N. (2013). Exploring the impact of skin tone on family dynamics and race-related outcomes. Journal of Family Psychology, 27(5), 817-826 doi:10.1037/a0033883 This study sets out to address the limitations of past research that focuses on skin tone, discrimination. In previous studies, findings show that more that 90% of AfricanAmerican people have experienced some type of racial discrimination during their lifetime however; African-Americans of a darker completion are more likely to face an increase in discrimination. The researchers acknowledge other studies that focus on colorism within families. These studies found that families that have children with noticeably different skin tones held the lighter skinned children to a higher standard than the darker skin children, because they viewed the dark skin tone as a social disadvantage. This study measured skin tone, quality of parenting, racial discrimination, racial socialization, physical attractiveness, and the amount of education of the primary care giver. The researchers gathered information from the family and Community Health Study, which included more than 800 African-American families who lived in Georgia and Iowa. They administered self-report questionnaires in an interview format and videotaped the responses, the video tapes were used to rate skin tone and attractiveness. The target skin tone for males was a medium dark skin, but the target skin tone for females was a medium skin. They found that skin tones were positively associated with the quality of parenting for target males and negatively associated with the quality of parenting for target females. Skin tone was also positively associated with the promotion of mistrust. In regards to physical attractiveness, the darker skinned participants were rated least attractive and the lighter skinned participants were rated more attractive. The skin tone of the primary caregiver and the target gender did not predict the quality of parenting. However, darker skin males get a higher quality of parenting than lighter skin males and lighter skin females get a higher quality of parenting than darker skin females.