Multiracial Identity Development Research Articles

An exploration of multiracial identity development, worldviews, and social realities of Asian–White individuals.

An exploration of multiracial identity development, worldviews, and social realities of Asian–White individuals.

Why Must I Choose: Multiracial Students Negotiating Identity at a PWI

College and university campuses are typically the most diverse environments students have ever inhabited. Higher education is an opportunity for students to discover their authentic selves. Universities facilitate student development by creating population-specific resources for marginalized students and motivating them to become involved. Many resources are monoracially designed. Unfortunately, higher education has a history of perpetuating monoracism in involvement opportunities and not considering fluidity as multiracial individuals explore their holistic identity. Instead, universities need to influence positive social behavior in multiracial identity development by encouraging multiracial students to explore their fluidity, rather than negotiate their identity when choosing monoracial organizations in higher education.

The sum of all parts: A multi-level exploration of racial and ethnic identity formation during emerging adulthood.

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the multiracial population measured at 33.8 million, nearly a 300% increase from the 2010 U.S. Census. The significant increase is due in part to improvements in measures to categorize this population. However, there is a dearth of research on the factors and processes that affect multiracial identity formation. The researchers investigated the precipitating factors to the formation of multiracial identification. Participants were recruited through social media campaigns. Hour-long in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 participants via Zoom, following an interview guide consisting of 9 categories: racial and ethnic identification, childhood and upbringing, family influence, peer engagement, health and wellbeing, experiences of discrimination, forming resilience, language, and demographics. Coding of transcripts and thematic analyses revealed that individual, interpersonal and community level influences influenced identity development differently depending on the individual's positionality within the life course. This supported the use of both the life course framework as well as the social ecological framework when examining multiracial identity development.

Visualizing multiracial identity development

Despite astonishing growth in the multiracial population since 2010 and increased empirical scholarship on the experiences of persons from two or more racial groups, little progress has been made to extend multiracial identity development theory. Drawing from constructivist grounded theory and multiple visual grounded theory (VGT) frameworks, our secondary qualitative study analyzed 26 participatory diagrams from two previous qualitative studies examining multiracial identity development. In alignment with our novel VGT analytic approach, we co-constructed a visual theoretical model that more accurately represents the dynamism between complex developmental and ecological processes that interactively influence multiracial identity development over time. Our findings suggest that multiracial identity development is a dynamic process influenced by critical events and experiences, including trauma and abuse, movement of place, and turning points and milestones that mutually shape a multiracial person’s social environments, interpersonal relationships, and sense of self. Reflecting on our innovative study, we advocate for more critical, emancipatory methods like VGT that have the potential to overcome epistemological barriers in research that restrict the more accurate and complete storytelling of the multiracial experience.

“There Are Stereotypes for Everything”: Multiracial Adolescents Navigating Racial Identity under White Supremacy

Despite the enduring popular view that the rise in the multiracial population heralds our nation’s transformation into a post-racial society, Critical Multiracial Theory (MultiCrit) asserts that how multiracial identity status is constructed is inextricably tied to systems and ideologies that maintain the white supremacist status quo in the United States. MultiCrit, like much of the multiracial identity literature, focuses predominantly on the experiences of emerging adults; this means we know little about the experiences of multiracial adolescents, a peak period for identity development. The current paper uses MultiCrit to examine how a diverse sample of multiracial youth (n = 49; Mage = 15.5 years) negotiate racial identity development under white supremacy. Our qualitative interview analysis reveals: (a) the salience of socializing messages from others, (b) that such messages reinforce a (mono)racist societal structure via discrimination, stereotyping, and invalidation, and (c) that multiracial youth frequently resist (mono)racist assertions as they make sense of their own identities. Our results suggest that multiracial youth are attentive to the myriad ways that white supremacy constructs and constrains their identities, and thus underscores the need to bring a critical lens to the study of multiracial identity development.

Navigating involvement spaces: The impact of campus environment on multiracial identity development

AbstractThis article presents the experiences of Multiracial students at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and the unique challenges they face in exploring their racial identities and finding belonging.

Salience of Ethnic Minority Grandparents in the Ethnic-Racial Socialization and Identity Development of Multiracial Grandchildren

ABSTRACTEthnic minority grandparents play a critical role in the lives of their grandchildren. A less examined yet assumed important role of ethnic minority grandparents is their function in the ethnic-racial socialization and identity development of their grandchildren. This exploratory study represents one of the only empirical investigations into the role of grandparents in the ethnic-racial socialization and ethnic identity development of the growing population of multiracial persons. Utilizing narrative methodology and the constant comparative method of analysis, we examined the subjective meaning of the role of ethnic minority grandparents across influential identity experiences of multiracial adults of Mexican heritage. Results confirm that beginning at an early age and continuing throughout multiracial participant lifetimes, ethnic minority grandparents engaged two focal processes in their grandchildren’s ethnic-racial socialization: as beacons of cultural socialization and monocentric gatekeepers. The influence of these contradictory processes on multiracial identity development is explored.

What Are You? Multiracial Identity Development

Race is a social construct, allowing humans to categorize and organize themselves and others based on physical appearance. In the U.S., the dominant population has historically used these categories to oppress and marginalize people of color. Nevertheless, in the post-Civil Rights era, it has become more common for couples of different races to have children. In the 2000 U.S. Census, individuals were able to identify as multiracial for the first time, and over 6 million people did so. By the 2010 U.S. Census, this number had increased to 9 million people. The increase of biracial or multiracial people in the U.S. has important implications for social work practice at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. How multiracial people come to understand themselves, how society views people who are multiracial, and the effect on social policy are all different areas that could affect social work practice. This study explored the experience of multiracial university students, a subsection of the larger population of multiracial people in the U.S. This was an action research study regarding the development of racial identity in a group of university students who are multiracial, as well as the development of advocacy strategies to encourage awareness of multiracial people in the larger university community. Seven university students in a mid-sized, western state university participated in this study and completed a Photo Voice project to raise awareness of the multiracial student population at the university. This study seeks to expand the knowledge base of multiracial identity development and inform social work practice with this population.

Parental Ethnic-Racial Socialization in Multiracial Mexican Families

ABSTRACTEmpirical studies of parental ethnic-racial socialization are constricted to single-race or monoracial youths. This has led to a monocentric conceptualization of ethnic-racial socialization, one that negates the experiences of the growing population of multiracial youths. This exploratory qualitative secondary analysis (QSA) examined messages of ethnic-racial socialization present in multiracial Mexican families. These messages were compared and contrasted to existing conceptualizations of parental ethnic-racial socialization, those more representative of single-race or monoracial youths. In addition, this study utilized an ecological model of multiracial identity development to examine how parental ethnic-racial socialization messages inform different identity types associated with the multiracial experience. Findings generated from this study extend the field of familial racial-ethnic socialization to further encompass and more accurately represent the growing population of multiracial youths and their families. Implications for future research and practice with multiracial individuals and families are discussed.

Student Development in College: Theory, Research, and Practice by Lori D. Patton et al.

Reviewed by: Student Development in College: Theory, Research, and Practiceby Lori D. Patton et al. Tony Cawthon and Jeff Kenney Student Development in College: Theory, Research, and Practice( 3rdEdition) Lori D. Patton, Kristen A. Renn, Florence M. Guido, and Stephen J. Quaye San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, 2016, 536 pages, $75.00 (hardcover), $60.99 (e-book) Student Development in Collegeprovides a comprehensive overview of student development theory for graduate students and professionals. Each iteration of the text has guided the trajectory of the field, and the release of its 3rd edition is no exception. Patton, Renn, Guido, and Quaye’s edition is a major reworking with substantial additions and revisions. While some departures from established conventions of student development theory may be jarring, as is forewarned by Evans in her preface, this fully reconsidered edition aligns with the contemporary practice of faculty and administrators and serves to advance thought, practice, and inquiry of student affairs. As with previous editions, readers are provided with a review of student development theory designed for students, faculty, and practitioners. The edition remains a strong introductory text and improves upon the utility of previous iterations of Student Development in Collegeas a reference tool beyond the graduate school classroom. Among the most notable changes from previous editions, readers will find a reorganization in the presentation of student development theories. Departing from the chronological tradition, this edition instead arranges theories according to conceptual and scholarly relevance. Most apparent is the expanded and prioritized attention paid to social identity theory, introduced through critical epistemologies and frameworks. Patton et al. challenge the reader beyond general comprehension of theory, and implores engagement with paradigmatic assumptions and a metacognitive practice of thinking with and about theory. Divided into four parts, part 1 presents strategies for using and translating student development theory. Chapter 1 prioritizes the development of the reader’s vocabulary, provides historical context, and introduces relevant applications of theory. Chapter 2, a notable expansion in the 3rd edition, engages the significance of world view in student development theory, and surveys a number of epistemological frameworks. Consistent with the edition’s investment in concepts of power, privilege, and oppression, the epistemological survey includes discussion of Critical Race Theory, Black Feminism, Postcolonialism, Poststructuralism, and Queer Theory. Prior to delving into the content of specific theories, in chapter 3 the authors explore applications of student development theory and assert the limitations of and necessity to evaluate theory. Part 2 is a robust review of social identity development through a comprehensive, complex, and diligent discussion of these theories. Chapter 4 focuses on core concepts of social identity, introducing accessible frameworks for power, privilege, oppression and the assemblage of such factors in Jones and Abes’s revised model of multiple dimensions of identity. Theories of social identity are described as dynamic and interdependent before individually discussing the nuances of specific social identity frameworks in subsequent chapters. Chapter 5 overviews racial identity development, including multiracial identity development. Transitioning to ethnic identity development and acculturation, [End Page 1064]chapter 6 presents through an array of models the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and societal dynamics of identity and acculturation in a US context. Chapter 7, which concerns sexual identity development, is notably revised in the 3rd edition. While maintaining a specific focus on LGBT exploration and identity, the chapter presents a universal approach to sexual identity development essentially disrupting the bifurcation of queer and heterosexual experiences. Gender identity development, chapter 8, is reviewed in a manner that problematizes cis-normative relationships of physical sex, gender identity, and gender expression and includes development discussions inclusive of trans* college students. Chapter 9 overviews established faith identity development frameworks including Fowler and Parks with notable inclusions of Astin, Astin, and Lindholm’s scholarship in college student religiosity and emergent theories of Muslim and atheist identity development. Chapter 10 introduces a new emphasis on disability identity development and reviews various historical frameworks through which differently abled people have been conceptualized, concluding with a contemporary and relevant social justice perspective. Chapter 11 also invests new emphasis on social class identity development, providing language and frameworks to articulate and describe diverse class experiences. Consistent with the authors’ commitment to intersectionality...

Negotiating cultural ambiguity: the role of markets and consumption in multiracial identity development

Due to their growing social visibility and recognized buying power, multiracial individuals have emerged as a viable consumer segment among marketers. However, there is a dearth of research examining how multiracial populations experience the marketplace. In an attempt to better understand the ways in which multiracial individuals utilize consumption practices as a means of developing and expressing their racial identity, this study examined the lived experience of multiracial (black and white) women. Findings of this phenomenological study indicate that multiracial consumers engage with the marketplace to assuage racial discordance and legitimize the liminal space they occupy. This marketplace engagement is explored through themes such as living in two worlds, the mighty ringlets and forced choice. Multiracial identity is seen to be co-constituted by marketers and consumers. Existing theories proved ineffectual at fully capturing the lived experience connected to the consumer acculturation and socialization processes for those with two distinctly constructed racial backgrounds.

Coping with the crickets: a fusion autoethnography of silence, schooling, and the continuum of biracial identity formation

This study explores biracial identity development in the adolescent years through fusion autoethnography. Using an ecological model of biracial identity development, this study illustrates how family, peers, and school curricula validate and reject racial self-presentations. We pay specific attention to the different forms of silence (i.e. “crickets”) that teachers and peers deploy as tactics of rejection and how racially coded artifacts such as hip-hop culture and Black Liberation texts function as validations of racial self-presentations. Overall, this study helps researchers and practitioners to understand the fluidity of biracial and multiracial identity development as it relates to everyday school spaces and processes.

Beyond Race: Examining the Facets of Multiracial Identity Through a Life-span Developmental Lens

Using a social work developmental lens, this qualitative study explored some of the numerous social and environmental factors that shape a multiracial individual's cultural identity. Results from transcript analysis portray the cultural identity of multiracial persons as significantly influenced by (1) personal experiences of racism and discrimination; (2) social interactions and relationships with peers and family; and (3) the racial climate of the school and community. The findings from this study support more fluid, ecological models of multiracial identity development that are more effective at explicating some of the highly complex and influential contextual factors that impact a multiracial person's cultural identity development.

Racing to Theory or Retheorizing Race? Understanding the Struggle to Build a Multiracial Identity Theory

Empirical research on the growing multiracial population in the United States has focused largely on the documentation of racial identification, analysis of psychological adjustment, and understanding the broader political consequences of mixed‐race identification. Efforts toward theory construction on multiracial identity development, however, have been largely disconnected from empirical data, mired in disciplinary debates, and bound by historically specific assumptions about race and racial group membership. This study provides a critical overview of multiracial identity development theories, examines the links between theory and research, explores the challenges to multiracial identity theory construction, and proposes considerations for future directions in theorizing racial identity development among the mixed‐race population.

Research on biracial and multiracial identity development: Overview and synthesis

AbstractThis chapter presents an overview of theories that have been used to describe identity development of biracial and multiracial college students.

RAISING MULTIRACIAL AWARENESS IN FAMILY THERAPY THROUGH CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS

Multiracial families are uniquely affected by racial dynamics in U.S. society. Family therapists must be prepared to meet the needs of this growing population and to support racial equity. This article includes an overview of literature related to being multiracial and offers a framework for working with multiracial identity development in therapy. A critical conversation approach to working with multiracial identity is shared along with case examples. The authors' experiences developing the model via a practitioner inquiry group are highlighted.

Chameleon Changes: An Exploration of Racial Identity Themes of Multiracial People.

The current study explored essential themes of racial identity development among 10 self-identified multiracial adults from a variety of racial backgrounds. Participants were interviewed using a semistructured protocol, and the interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then coded for themes by research team members. Four primary themes were identified: encounters with racism, reference group orientation, the chameleon experience, and the importance of social context in identity development. A number of subthemes also were identified. Although several of the themes mirrored those associated with contemporary biracial and multiracial identity development models, new themes centering on the adoption of multiple self-labels reflecting both monoracial and multiracial backgrounds emerged as well. Implications of the findings for future research and practice are identified.