Racial identification and developmental outcomes among Black–White multiracial youth: A review from a life course perspective

Abstract

Abstract This selective review of the literature utilizes core life course principles to enhance current understanding of the complex relations between structural constraints, social contextual influences, and racial identification, and their implications for Black–White multiracial youth's developmental pathways. We assert that weakening structural constraints permit overall higher levels of human agency in contemporary multiracial youth's racial identification. We also argue that the social context within which these youth are embedded affords varying levels of human agency. Multiracial youth negotiate their racial identity in response to these micro-level social constraints. Finally, to understand the diversity of developmental pathways among contemporary multiracial youth, scholars must consider the dynamic interplay between macro- and micro-level constraints and racial identification. Research on multiracial youth's racial identity formation and psychosocial adjustment has the potential to inform efforts to promote resilience in this growing population. Mixed-method and longitudinal studies should examine multiple levels of developmental contexts, racial identification, and their joint effects on Black–White multiracial youth's psychosocial development over the life course. Scholars must also carefully attend to race measurement as it relates to sampling bias in studies of youth of color.