How is racial identity formed

As this short introduction to racial and ethnic identity shows, understanding how educators and librarians can support the positive racial identity of BIYOC is critical to helping them achieve their full potential. Watch this video, created by WNYC , of a diverse group of year-olds from New York City schools talking about their racial and ethnic identity. Next, watch the documentary When Your Hands Are Tied , which explores the unique ways in which Native youth are finding to express themselves in the contemporary world while maintaining strong traditional lives.

In your journal , write a short autobiography exploring your own racial, ethnic, or tribal identity. Consider these questions:. Read this summary [PDF] of racial and ethnic identity models and frameworks. Read this research study [PDF] which discusses the connection between positive racial identity, resiliency, and student achievement for youth of color.

As you read the study, think about the students you see every day in your classroom or library. How do their experiences mirror those described in the study? Multnomah County Library MCL , headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is committed to the goals of equity, inclusion, and sustaining a workforce that reflects the community it serves. As one strategy for recruiting diverse library staff to engage with the many communities served by the MCL, the library administration created a designation called Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities KSA that allows them to focus on hiring staff that have specific knowledge, skills, and a passion for providing linguistically and culturally specific services.

As one form of outreach, Kirby started Black Storytime, a way for families to experience and celebrate Black and African American culture at the library. Listen as Kirby describes the program in this short video. We plan our day around it. He looks like me! Just like the kids his books. I just love it. And for my 2-year old who is the only black child in his daycare, Black Story Time is huge for us. For once he is not the different one.

In your journal , reflect on these questions:. Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: A review of research. Psychological Bulletin, , The Thomas and Cross models of psychological nigrescence: A literature review.

Journal of Black Psychology, 4, Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? New York: Basic Books. Adolescence Adolescent Health and Development. Ethnic and Racial Identity Development printer-friendly Identity development , the growth of a strong and stable sense of self across a range of identity dimensions, is central to adolescent development [1].

References [ 1 ]. Phinney, J. Erikson, E. Marcia, J. Cross, W. Tatum, B. University of Rochester Medical Center. Although the achievement of a balanced identity is deemed ideal, movement across these stages vary by individuals and many may never reach the final stage.

These stages are hypothesized to be related to health and developmental outcomes. Since Sue and Sue suggest that the achievement of a balanced identity is the ideal state, adolescents identify with having a combination of high levels of ERI and high levels of American identity can be hypothesized to display the most favorable developmental outcomes, while those who demonstrate a combination of weak ERI and American identity are expected to display the least favorable developmental outcomes.

Adolescence is a developmental period when individuals become sensitive to their social standing relative to those around them. Jackman found that subjective status is commonly interpreted as both a social and economic construct. SSS is a well-established predictor of both mental and physical health Zell et al.

Not only does the association between SSS and health remain after controlling for traditional measures of socioeconomic status Cundiff and Matthews, , SSS has been found to be more strongly related to self-rated health, chronic stress, sleep latency, and other physical health and psychological outcomes, such as obesity, depression, and subjective well-being, than objective status Adler et al.

Past studies have documented close relationships between various dimensions of social identity e. The findings of these studies suggest that while ERI, American identity and SSS are distinct social identity dimensions, it would also be important to take an intersectional approach and consider different combinations of these social identities. One value of taking an intersectional approach of considering various combinations of social identity dimensions is that it uniquely elucidates marginalization that is experienced in multiple spaces; with the working hypothesis that multiple areas of marginalization are likely related to amplified vulnerabilities.

In an attempt to unpack social inequality, scholars have adopted an intersectionality framework to consider the independent and joint effects of multiple social positions such as socioeconomic status and marginalization statuses; as well as between-group homogeneity and within-group heterogeneity Azmitia and Thomas, Recent studies of intersectionality have found that different configurations of intersecting and competing identities contribute to disparities in developmental, social, and academic outcomes, reiterating the usefulness of a person-centered approach Shade et al.

By taking a quantitative approach, different subgroups can be identified by various configurations of multiple indicators that can be compared with one another. It becomes possible to quantify the average characteristics of these qualitatively different subgroups. Furthermore, categorizing the participants into these different subgroups is expected to provide information about the proportion of each subgroup that may be potential targets of prevention and intervention Zeiders et al.

Intersectionality also has the potential to reveal important within-group differences. We next examine whether these identity configurations are reflected in differences in prior experiences of discrimination, as well as subsequent mental health and academic outcomes. The three overarching research questions of the current study are:. RQ2: How do profiles of adolescent identity differ in reports of previous discrimination? RQ3: How are profiles of adolescent identity prospectively related to developmental outcomes 6 months later?

The initial sampling took place at the school level. Schools were chosen based on the diverse student population, as determined by the New York City Department of Education, and letters were sent to principals to invite their institutions to participate.

The participating schools were located in three different boroughs: Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. Researchers recruited ninth grade students at the schools via in-class presentations and flyers. Consent forms were mailed to the parents of eligible adolescents. Of the participants in the original study, participants were included in the present sample based on self-reported primary race. Of these adolescents, The sample includes females Participants completed an online survey three times during each school year: early fall, mid-fall, and spring.

Students were given a tablet, or sent an email or text message with the survey link at each time point. A total of nine time points were included in the 3-year study in order to follow developmental patterns over the course of the years. The surveys distributed at these time points included similar instruments to assess well-being and academic outcomes, however, some of the measures differed by time point. Because the second and third years were not yet available for analysis at this time, only the first-year data was included.

Considering the differences in measures at different time points and in order to provide implications for potential future longitudinal studies with the available dataset, all three time points within the first year were included.

For the examination of how prior experiences of discrimination may have implications for different identity configurations, discrimination reports from the fall of the preliminary year of the study were used.

All procedures were approved by the Internal Review Board of the institution where the study was conducted. American Identity. The reliability of this scale was 0. Subjective social status. Participants were asked to mark their position relative to others in five different groups i. The participants were asked to mark their position for each social group, five times in total, in the same order.

Anxiety was measured by the State Trait Anxiety scale Spielberger et al. The scale includes 20 items for state anxiety and 20 items for trait anxiety. The reliability of this scale from a previous study Yip et al. Average grades. Participants were asked to report the grades from their last report card i. School engagement. School engagement was measured with an adapted version of the Wellborn measure Wellborn, The mean was 2. Latent profile analysis LPA was conducted using Mplus 7.

LPA is a person-centered approach useful for detecting subgroups in the sample across multiple variables. This approach is distinguished from the variable-centered approach, which focuses on separate levels on specific variables. A person-centered approach is data-driven analysis which assumes that the subgroups in the sample are not directly observable and infers the associations between observable characteristics.

Multiple statistical models are tested and compared to determine the ideal number of latent profiles that represent different patterns across the study variables.

LPA provides information about the number of participants that can be classified in each subgroup and an estimate of the level of each variable for each member of the profile.

All variables were standardized to account for differences in measurement scales. The number of subgroups at the point where the decrease starts to plateau is selected. The final number of subgroups are selected based on fit indices and model comparisons with the consideration of interpretability Lo et al. While the prior experience of discrimination was measured 14 days before the measurement of all the social identity dimensions, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, self-reported grades, and school engagement were measured after 6 months.

Bonferroni post hoc test of differences was conducted afterward to identify groups with significantly different means. Although it was difficult to make predictions about their direct causal relationships with the results from ANOVA, the longitudinal design of the current study was expected to provide useful information for future studies that will examine their direct causal relationships.

Correlation analyses were conducted with the main study variables Table 1. Being male was correlated with higher levels of self-esteem and higher self-reported average grades, lower levels of ERI exploration and anxiety. As for nativity, being born in the United States was associated with higher levels of American identity and lower levels of discrimination experience. Significant correlations were also found between ERI processes and other main study variables, such that ERI exploration was positively correlated with ERI commitment and American identity, and ERI commitment was positively correlated with American identity, self-esteem, and school engagement, while being negatively correlated with discrimination experience, depression, and anxiety.

American identity was also found to be positively correlated with self-esteem and negatively correlated with discrimination experience and anxiety. Expectedly, SSS was also positively correlated with self-esteem and school engagement and negatively correlated with anxiety.

For mental-health-related outcomes, depression was positively correlated with anxiety and negatively correlated with self-esteem and school engagement. Similarly, anxiety was negatively correlated with self-esteem and school engagement, and self-esteem was positively correlated with school engagement.

Lastly, self-reported grades were negatively correlated with school engagement. The entropy for this model was also acceptable. The model comparison between 2-class model and 3-class model indicated that the 3-class model had a significantly better fit than the 2-class model.

Based on the fit indices and model fit comparison tests, 3-class model was selected. The first profile Figure 2 consisted of 7. In this group, Approximately Figure 2. The second latent profile Figure 2 consisted of Similar to the previous profile, most of the participants in this group were female The third profile Figure 2 consisted of Again, most of the individuals in this group were also female Analysis of variance was conducted to examine group differences in social identity dimensions i.

Table 4. Analysis of variance results for three profiles: social identity dimensions. The interpretation and implications for these results are discussed in the following section. However, behavioral indicators are one of the best ways to think about the evolution of your ethnic identity. We have purposely focused on ethnic identity because some people tend to ignore the importance of this aspect of identity. However, many other aspects of our identity interact with ethnicity.

Sign in. There are four major components of ethnic identity JS Phinney, Journal of Adolescent Research, : Ethnic Awareness - understanding of one's own and other groups. Ethnic Self-Identification - label used for one's own group. Ethnic Attitudes - feelings about own and other groups. Ethnic Behaviors - behavior patterns specific to an ethnic group.

Reflection Questions What have you learned about your ethnicity from your family, friends, society, media, etc.? What thoughts, feelings, and behaviors have been associated with your experiences when ethnicity was salient?

If you cannot think of an experience where ethnicity was salient, does this still say something about your cultural background?