Ethnic and National Identity Development and School Adjustment: A Longitudinal Study With Turkish Immigrant-Origin Children

Abstract

We examined developmental trajectories of ethnic and national identity during early adolescence and linked subgroups of identity change to ethnic minority children’s school adjustment. Our longitudinal data on Turkish immigrant-origin children in Germany ( N = 146; MT1 = 10.42 years, 46.6% male) covered three waves of annual measurement. A person-oriented approach using growth mixture modeling revealed two different classes (subgroups) of identity change: Class 1 comprised children with a high and stable Turkish identity, and Class 2 comprised children with a medium and increasing Turkish identity. German identity was medium and stable in both classes. Results further showed generally high levels of school adjustment in both classes but lower levels of school motivation and teacher support among children in Class 2. Our findings point toward heterogeneity in ethnic minority children’s identity development during early adolescence and support the “ethnic identity as a resource” hypothesis.