Racial Identity,School Racial Climate,and School Intrinsic Motivation Among African American Youth: The Importance of Person–Context Congruence

Researchers have been concerned with whether strong racial identification promotes or inhibits achievement motivation among African American youth, but current literatures have paid little attention to the role of youths' contexts. In this study, we outline a racial identity–context congruence framework that predicts positive benefits of a strong, positive racial identity when the context is congruent with youths' beliefs. To test this framework, we examined school racial climate as a moderator in the relationships of three racial identity variables (centrality, private regard, and public regard) with intrinsic motivation for attending school in a sample of 11th graders. Overall, results support the congruence perspective and also demonstrate how feelings of belonging at school mediate the relationship between racial identity–racial climate congruence and school intrinsic motivation.     

A Preliminary Analysis of Associations Among Ethnic–Racial Socialization,Ethnic Discrimination,and Ethnic Identity Among Urban Sixth Graders

Drawing from cultural ecological models of adolescent development, the present research investigates how early adolescents received ethnic–racial socialization from parents as well as how experiences of ethnic and racial discrimination are associated with their ethnic identity (i.e., centrality, private regard, and public regard). Data for this study were drawn from a multimethod study of ethnically and socioeconomically diverse early adolescents in three mid‐ to high‐achieving schools in New York City. After accounting for the influences of race/ethnicity, social class, gender, immigrant status, and self‐esteem, parental ethnic–racial socialization was associated with higher levels of ethnic centrality (i.e., the extent to which youth identify themselves in terms of their group), more positive private regard (i.e., feelings about one's own ethnic group), and public regard (i.e., perceptions of other people's perceptions of their ethnic group). Ethnic discrimination from adults at school and from peers was associated with more negative perceptions of one's ethnic group (i.e., public regard). In addition, the association of ethnic–racial parent socialization and ethnic identity beliefs was stronger for those who reported higher levels of adult discrimination. Results highlight key ways in which ethnic identity may be shaped by the social ecologies in which adolescents are embedded.     

Unpacking Racial Socialization: Considering Female African American Primary Caregivers' Racial Identity

The relationship between female African American primary caregivers' racial identity and their racial socialization emphases was examined. Three components of racial identity were evaluated: (1) the importance of race to the self‐concept (centrality), (2) affective feelings toward group membership (private regard), and (3) perceptions of how group members are perceived by nonmembers (public regard). Latent class cluster analysis was used to identify racial identity profiles, or dominant combinations of racial centrality, private regard, and public regard among a sample of 208 female African American primary caregivers. Mean differences in the content of caregivers' socialization emphases by profile group were then assessed. Findings indicated that caregivers with different identity profiles emphasized different messages. These findings and their implications are discussed.     

Perceived Paternal and Maternal Acceptance and Rural African American and European American Youths' Psychological Adjustment

This study explores the following question: Are rural African American and European American youths' experiences of paternal and maternal acceptance equally related to their self‐reported psychological adjustment, or do youths' experiences of paternal acceptance account for an independent portion of the variance in psychological adjustment, over and above the portion of variance explained by their experiences of maternal acceptance? This study also explores possible social‐class, age, gender, and paternal‐residence differences in perceived paternal and maternal acceptance and youths' psychological adjustment. The research is based on a proportional, stratified, random sample of 281 African American and European American families in a poor, rural, biracial county of Georgia, U.S.A. Results of multiple regression analyses indicate that only perceived paternal acceptance is significantly related to European American youths' self‐reported psychological adjustment when controlling for the influence of perceived maternal acceptance. In African American families, both perceived paternal acceptance and perceived maternal acceptance are significantly related to youths' self‐reported psychological adjustment. Finally, results of analyses indicate that relationships between perceived paternal and maternal acceptance and youths' psychological adjustment within the ethnic groups are not related significantly to youths' age, gender, paternal residence, or social class.     

Public Ethnic Regard and Academic Adjustment Among Latino Adolescents

This study examined whether Latino adolescents' perceptions of personal support vis‐à‐vis those of ethnic regard by adults at school differentially relate to academic outcomes. Data were drawn from a sample of 156 Latino students (age M=16.17, SD=1.27; 61% girls, 39% boys) attending an urban high school. As expected, youth who perceived more positive public ethnic regard (i.e., by adults at school) were more engaged and higher achieving than their counterparts with more negative public regard. Importantly, after accounting for personal support from adults in school, public ethnic regard contributed uniquely to the variance explained by models predicting academic engagement and performance. These results suggest that public ethnic regard comprises a meaningful dimension of Latino adolescents' relationships with adults in school.     

Correlates of Ethnicity‐related Dating Preferences among Asian American Adolescents across the High School Years

Ethnicity‐related dating preferences among Asian American adolescents and the links between preferences (i.e., for a same‐ethnic dating partner) and ethnic identity centrality and regard, American identity centrality and regard, parent – adolescent closeness, and perceptions of discrimination were investigated. Data from 175 self‐identified Asian American high school students were collected yearly for four consecutive years. Higher levels of ethnic identity centrality and regard and parent – adolescent closeness averaged across four years were associated with preferring a same‐ethnic partner. Moreover, foreign‐born adolescents were less likely to prefer a same‐ethnic partner when they encountered a higher than average level of discrimination on any given year. Results highlight variability in the developmental and individual‐level factors that shape how adolescents navigate their dating relationships.     

Ethnic pride, biculturalism, and drug use norms of urban American Indian adolescents

This study examines how strength of ethnic identity, multiethnic identity, and other indicators of biculturalism relate to the drug use norms of urban American Indian middle school students. The article distinguishes categories of norms that may affect drug use. Regression analysis of self-reports by 434 American Indian seventh graders attending middle schools in a large southwestern U.S. city indicated that students who had a more intense sense of ethnic pride adhered more strongly to certain antidrug norms than those who did not. Whereas American Indian students with better grades in school held consistently stronger antidrug norms, there were few differences by gender, socioeconomic status, or age. These results have implications in social work practice for better understanding and strengthening the protective aspects of American Indian culture in drug prevention efforts.     

The Importance of Racial Socialization: School‐Based Racial Discrimination and Racial Identity Among African American Adolescent Boys and Girls

This study examined various parental racial socialization messages as mediators between school‐based racial discrimination and racial identity formation over 4 years for African American boys (N = 639) and African American girls (N = 711). Findings indicated that school‐based racial discrimination was associated with racial identity beliefs. For African American boys, behavioral racial socialization messages mediated the relation between school‐based racial discrimination and racial centrality over time. Mediation also resulted for African American girls, but for a different set of race‐related messages (negative messages and racial barriers) and racial identity beliefs. The developmental significance of the findings and implications for future research are discussed.     

Academic Growth Trajectories and Family Relationships Among African American Youth

This study explored trajectories of African American youths' academic functioning and assessed whether changes in parent–adolescent relationships were associated with changes in youths' academic functioning. The data were drawn from a 3‐year longitudinal study of gender socialization and development in two‐parent African American families and included 197 families. Findings revealed gender differences in achievement trajectories and indicated that boys not only had lower levels of academic achievement compared to girls, but also experienced steeper declines in school self‐esteem during adolescence. Changes in parent–adolescent relationship quality were linked to changes in academic functioning: Increases in conflict were related to decreases in GPA, school bonding, and school self‐esteem and increases in warmth were related to increases in school bonding and school self‐esteem.     

Friendship Groups,Personal Motivation,and Gender in Relation to High School Students' STEM Career Interest

Friendship group characteristics, motivation, and gender were investigated in relation to adolescents' science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career interest. The sample was comprised of 468 high school students (M = 16 years, range = 13–18) from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Participants rated their friendship group's support of STEM as well as their personal motivation in science. They separately rated the friendship group's support of English and personal motivation in English. Other predictors included friendship group characteristics (importance, gender composition) and background variables such as gender. Group support of STEM (but not English) and science motivation (but not English motivation) predicted STEM career interest. Group characteristics and participant gender moderated the effects. Findings suggest social identities and self‐concepts may shape youths' STEM career choices.     

Examining Discrimination,Ethnic‐Racial Identity Status,and Youth Public Regard Among Black,Latino, and White Adolescents

How positively adolescents believe others feel about their ethnic‐racial group (i.e., public regard) is an important part of their ethnic‐racial identity (ERI), which is likely informed by contextual and individual factors. Using cluster analyses to generate ERI statuses among Black, Latino, and White adolescents (n = 1,378), we found that associations between peer versus adult discrimination and public regard varied across ERI status and ethnic‐racial group. However, among all adolescents, an achieved ERI (i.e., having explored ethnicity‐race and having a clear sense about its personal meaning) buffered the negative association between adult discrimination and public regard, but not between peer discrimination and public regard. Implications for understanding the interplay between contextual and individual factors for public regard are discussed.     

Mexican American and European American Adolescents' Dating Experiences across the Ecosystem: Implications for Healthy Relationships within an Ecodevelopmental Framework

Dating health interventions that target the complex, multi-systemic spheres in which adolescents experience their first romantic relationships are required. This study utilizes an ecodevelopmental approach to better understand Mexican American and European American youths' perceptions of how peers, parents, school, and the media act both independently and collectively to affect their dating lives, also elucidating how such systems are at times in conflict. Seventy-five middle adolescents participated in focus groups divided by gender and ethnicity to uncover differences and similarities within and across groups. Findings underscore the importance and widespread effects of romantic relationships for adolescents' social development and the need for intervention programs that target multiple points of intervention while attending to mesosystemic conflicts across systems.     

Navigating the Transition to Multi‐Ethnic Urban High Schools: Changing Ethnic Congruence and Adolescents' School‐Related Affect

This short‐term longitudinal study investigated 918 students' school‐related affect across the transition to high school. The study focused specifically on the moderating effect of change in student ethnic congruence from middle to high school. Results indicate that students experiencing more ethnic incongruence from middle to high school, in particular African American and male students, reported declining feelings of school belonging over time. Moreover, students experiencing ethnic incongruence also had increasing worries about their academic success. These results suggest that the changing school demographics from middle school to high school may negatively impact students' school‐related affect, especially if they move to high schools which include fewer students who are ethnically similar to themselves.     

Influences on Adolescent African American Females' Global Self-Esteem

Abstract

This study of 105 senior high school Southern African American adolescent females examined the relationship between global self-esteem, appearance evaluation (body image), and ethnic identity. As predicted, the relationship between global self-esteem, appearance evaluation (r = .46, p < .001), and ethnic identity (r = 40, p < .001) were significant and positive. The young women who rated their self-esteem high also scored high on the appearance evaluation (63%) and ethnic identity achievement measures. Therefore, these young women are expected to spend more time on self-enhancing behaviors and less time on self-limiting behaviors (early sexual involvement, drugs, etc.).     

Acculturation and Enculturation Trajectories Among Mexican‐American Adolescent Offenders

This study examines changes over time in ethnic affirmation/belonging and ethnic identity achievement, Spanish language use, English language use, Mexican/Mexican‐American affiliation/identification and Anglo affiliation/identification in a sample of Mexican‐American adolescents participating in a longitudinal study of juvenile offenders. The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure and the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans‐II were completed by the Mexican‐American adolescents 7 times over a 3‐year period. The findings from longitudinal growth modeling analyses and growth mixture modeling analyses indicate that there is heterogeneity in the initial scores and changes over time on these variables that are related to markers for the cultural qualities of the home environment (i.e., generational status and mother's most frequent language use). In contrast to expectations, marginalized or assimilated acculturation trajectories/types were not overrepresented in this sample of adolescent offenders. Implications for our understanding of the nature of acculturation and enculturation processes and the way these processes are studied are discussed.     

Discrimination Hurts: The Academic,Psychological, and Physical Well‐Being of Adolescents

Little is known about the frequency of ethnic or racial discrimination and its implications for Latin American and Asian youths' development. In this study, we examined if there were ethnic and generation differences among 601 12th graders from Latin American (36%), Asian (43%), and European (19%) backgrounds in the frequency of peer, adult, and daily discrimination, and whether discrimination predicted their well‐being. Adolescents from Latin American and Asian backgrounds reported more adult and peer discrimination than their peers from European backgrounds. Latin American youth reported more adult discrimination than their Asian peers. Discrimination predicted lower grade point averages and self‐esteem, and more depressive symptoms, distress, and physical complaints. Ethnic identity, ethnic socialization, and race rejection sensitivity did not moderate the associations between discrimination and well‐being.     

PREP SCHOOL AND PUBLIC SCHOOL GRADUATES: WHO ATTENDS COLLEGE REUNIONS,WHO DONATES,WHO DOESN'T,AND WHY

As early as the 1920s, studies at various elite colleges revealed that public school graduates outperformed private school graduates academically, and more recent research indicates various differences in life patterns between these two groups 25 years after graduation. The two new studies presented here, which look at attendance at college reunions and donations to one's college, extend that earlier work. At a New England college, public school graduates were more likely than the private school graduates to attend their 30th, 35th, and 40th year college reunions. Donations to the school showed that public school graduates were somewhat more likely to make contributions than private school graduates, and graduates of the most socially elite boarding schools were especially unlikely to have made contributions. These findings are discussed in terms of the varying roles that prep schools and colleges play in one's identity.     

Familism Values,Family Time,and Mexican‐Origin Young Adults' Depressive Symptoms

Using longitudinal data across eight years, this study examined how parents' familism values in early adolescence predicted youths' depressive symptoms in young adulthood via youths' familism values and family time. We examined these processes among 246 Mexican‐origin families using interview and phone‐diary data. Findings revealed that fathers' familism values predicted male and female youths' familism values in middle adolescence. For female youth only, fathers' familism values also predicted youths' family time in late adolescence. The link between family time and young adults' depressive symptoms depended on parental acceptance and adolescent gender: Among female and male youth, family time predicted fewer depressive symptoms, but only when paternal acceptance was high. For female adolescents only, family time predicted fewer depressive symptoms when maternal acceptance was high but more depressive symptoms when maternal acceptance was low. Findings highlight family dynamics as the mechanisms through which familism values have implications for youths' adjustment.     

The Inter-ethnic Return: Racial and Cultural Multiplicity in Foundational Asian American and Chicana/o Literatures

Abstract

This article advocates that inter-ethnic contact and cross-cultural traffic condition the possibilities of imagining Asian American and Chicana/o identities, respectively, in early Asian American and Chicana/o novels. Using Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior and Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street as my primary examples, I demonstrate how early Asian American and Chicana/o literatures that have been critiqued almost exclusively within binary analytic paradigms articulate identity within a diverse field of racial and cultural differences. I argue that, in order to regard properly the inter-ethnic trends of recent US fiction and to liberate foundational minority texts from ethnic specific enclaves within US institutions, scholars need to recognize how negotiating a diverse spectrum of racial and cultural distinctions is a critical element of the early Asian American and Chicana/o literary imagination.     

Who am I? Who do you think I am? Stability of racial/ethnic self-identification among youth in foster care and concordance with agency categorization

While it has been well documented that racial and ethnic disparities exist for children of color in child welfare, the accuracy of the race and ethnicity information collected by agencies has not been examined, nor has the concordance of this information with youth self-report. This article addresses a major gap in the literature by examining 1) the racial and ethnic self-identification of youth in foster care, and the rate of agreement with child welfare and school categorizations; 2) the level of concordance between different agencies (school and child welfare); and 3) the stability of racial and ethnic self-identification among youth in foster care over time. Results reveal that almost 1 in 5 youth change their racial identification over a one-year period, high rates of discordance exist between the youth self-report of Native American, Hispanic and multiracial youth and how agencies categorize them, and a greater tendency for the child welfare system to classify a youth as White, as compared to school and youth themselves. Information from the study could be used to guide agencies towards a more youth-centered and flexible approach in regard to identifying, reporting and affirming youth's evolving racial and ethnic identity.