Racial Group Identity Research Articles

Quality Measure Adherence and Oral Health Outcomes in Children

Process-based quality measures are generally intended to promote evidence-based practices that have been proven to improve outcomes. However, due to lack of standardized implementation of diagnostic codes in dentistry, assessing the association between process and oral health outcomes has been challenging. To estimate the association of adhering to dental quality measures with patient oral health outcomes. Using a target trial emulation, a causal inference framework, this retrospective cohort study estimated the difference in the risk of developing tooth decay between US children who adhered to process-based dental quality measures (receiving topical fluoride and sealant [treated groups]) and those who did not (control groups). Electronic health records of US children and adolescents aged 0 to 18 years from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2020, were used. To emulate random treatment assignment based on baseline confounders, coarsened exact matching was used to produce covariate balance between the treated and control groups. A time-to-event regression model produced effect estimates, adjusting for time-varying covariates. Near-far matching was used to account for unmeasured confounders as a sensitivity analysis. Data were analyzed from May 1 to August 7, 2023. Adherence to dental quality measures. Incidence of tooth decay. Among 69 212 US children aged between 0 and 18 years (mean [SD] age, 10.2 [5.0] years; 49.5% male, 50.4% female, and 0.1% unknown or transgender), 1930 (2.8%) were Asian, 2038 (2.9%) were Black, 8667 (12.5%) were Hispanic, 33 632 (48.6%) were White, and 22 945 (33.2%) were multiracial, other, or missing racial and ethnic group identification. Relative to control individuals, treated individuals were more likely to be at elevated risk of caries (fluoride measure: 16 453 [76.5%] vs 15 236 [39.8%]; sealant measure: 2264 [54.6%] vs 997 [44.0%]) and have regular dental visits (fluoride measure: 21 498 [100%] vs 13 741 [35.9%]; sealant measure: 1623 [39.2%] vs 871 [38.4%]). Adherence to quality measures was associated with reduced risk of tooth decay with adjusted hazard ratios of 0.82 (95% CI, 0.78- 0.86) for fluoride and 0.86 (95% CI, 0.76-0.97) for sealant in the matched cohort. Benefits of adhering to quality measures were greater among children at elevated vs low risk and with public vs commercial insurance for both measures. In this cohort study, adhering to dental quality measures was associated with reduced risk of tooth decay, and benefits were greater among children at elevated risk and with public insurance. These findings provide insights in facilitating targeted application of quality measures or developing more tailored quality improvement initiatives.

Challenging Stereotypes: Prosocial Racial Humor in Luís Valdez’s Actos

ABSTRACT This article examines how Luís Valdez uses prosocial racial humor in his collection of short plays to challenge the anti-Mexican racism directed against the strikers during the 1965–1970 Delano, California, grape strike as well as to address many of the other social issues faced by the Chicano community during this period. Drawing on social psychology research on the dynamics of racial group identification and focusing on the acto entitled Los Vendidos, the article analyzes how Valdez and his Teatro Campesino created the set of conditions that allowed audience members to confront and overcome the negative effects of the racial stereotyping and ethnic slurs they were experiencing on the picket lines and elsewhere and in the process to raise their Chicano cultural and political consciousness.

Backward Through the Veil: Individual and Group Identity in Dreams from My Father

This essay proposes that there is a common identity progression that structures the narratives of many works of Afro-American autobiography and fiction. This progression starts with a hegemonic Black group identitydesigned to contain and constrain a liberated conception of individual identity for the protagonist. After recognizing the falsity of this socially prescribed racist group identity, the protagonist cycles through alternative, ostensibly counter-hegemonic, group identities with the ultimate realization that these too are false and constricting. The affirmation and social recognition of a stable individual identity is seen as impossible in the context of the US racial identification system. Death, exile, or exit from the system in some other form is therefore the common resolution to these narratives. Barak Obama’s autobiography Dreams from My Father is treated as a negative case in this proposed trend. It is argued that Obama’s narrative basically reverses the traditional progression. This is claim is based on the idea that Obama’s work culminates not with his ownaffirmation of self-identity independent of the constraints of the US’s system of racial group identification, but with the affirmation of a self that is determined by Obama’s choice to identify and be identified with AfroAmericans as a group.

Sociocultural engagement in a colorblind racism framework moderates perceptions of cultural appropriation

Cultural appropriation refers to an action whereby an individual makes use of, imitates, or takes possession of cultural products of an outgroup or source community. Compared to Black Americans, many White Americans do not differentiate between high (i.e., White) and low (i.e., Black) status actors when making judgments of cultural appropriation (Mosley & Biernat, 2021). The goal of the current research is to assess why some individuals exhibit a lack of recognition of structural and historical racism when making judgments of cultural appropriation. To answer this question, we draw on theoretical work on colorblind racism, a framework of racial ideologies that emphasize that group differences should be ignored, and that people should be treated as individuals (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). Three experiments investigate the colorblind - racism hypothesis: perceivers who are highly invested in a colorblind racism ideology —assessed along three dimensions including racial group identification, historical knowledge of racism, and endorsement of assimilationist ideologies—will see equal levels of appropriation in the actions of White and Black perpetrators. In contrast, perceivers low in a colorblind ideology will see White (versus Black) actors as more culturally appropriative. We see for evidence for this hypothesis among White (Studies 1–2) and Black (Study 3) perceivers. These findings suggest that endorsement in a colorblind ideology can facilitate ignorance of power differences between groups when perceiving cultural appropriation.

Racial Identification as a Protective Factor for At-Risk Parenting in Black Parents: A Longitudinal, Multi-Method Investigation.

Although considerable literature focuses on risk factors predicting parents' likelihood to engage in maltreatment, relatively less work evaluates potentially protective parental resources, particularly culturally relevant qualities. The current investigation utilized a multi-method longitudinal study to examine parents' racial identification as a possible resource, hypothesizing that Black parents with stronger racial group identification would demonstrate lower at-risk parenting, operationalized as lower child abuse risk and less negative observed parenting. In a sample of 359 mothers and fathers (half self-identified Black, half non-Hispanic White), controlling for socioeconomic status, findings partially supported the hypothesis. Black parents' greater racial identification was associated with lower child abuse risk and less observed negative parenting, whereas the reverse was true for White parents. The potential limitations of current assessment approaches to gauge at-risk parenting in parents of color are discussed, as well as how racial identification could be considered in culturally informed prevention programming for at-risk parenting.

Discrimination, psychotic experiences, and racial identity among Black Americans: Findings from the National Survey of American Life

An emerging body of evidence suggests racial and ethnic identity may buffer the effects of discrimination on psychotic experiences, though the buffering effects have not been consistent across studies. More research is needed to clarify the conditions under which aspects of racial identity modify the effects of various forms of discrimination on psychotic experiences among Black Americans. We analyzed data from the National Survey of American Life (2001-2003). Using multivariable logistic regression, we examined the relations between various forms of discrimination and lifetime psychotic experiences, testing the interactive effects of two aspects of racial identity (racial group identification and racial private regard), adjusted for sociodemographic covariates. The relation between everyday discrimination and psychotic experiences was stronger for African Americans who reported higher levels of racial group identification. Conversely, the relation between major discriminatory events and psychotic experiences was stronger for Caribbean Black Americans who reported lower levels of racial group identification. Higher racial private regard moderated the associations between everyday discrimination and psychotic experiences, and outgroup colorism and psychotic experiences among Caribbean Black Americans. The role of racial identity is complex and appears to moderate the relation between some (but not all) forms of discrimination and lifetime psychotic experiences, depending on ethnicity.

Connecting the Threads: Stratification Economics and the Political Economy of W.E.B. Du Bois

This analysis expands previous research examining the origins of concepts and theoretical frameworks developed by Stratification Economics (SE) practitioners. Linkages between formulations developed by W.E.B. Du Bois and similar SE constructs are analyzed extending the previous recognition of the relevance of his scholarship for SE. Four specific elements of Du Bois's SE-related scholarship are interrogated: (1) Origins and Parameters of Racial Group Identity; (2) Class Differentiation; (3) Capitalism and Racial Stratification; and (4) Democracy and Racial Stratification. Du Bois's predictions regarding future important economic trends are shown to be relevant for guiding SE analyses of contemporary patterns of racial economic stratification. Reasons why Du Bois's scholarship has received limited attention within the Economics profession are discussed in the context of explaining why formalizing Du Bois's role as a SE progenitor is important for the ongoing development of SE.

Awareness of and Confidence to Address Equity-Related Concepts Across the US Governmental Public Health Workforce.

To assess the governmental public health (GPH) workforce's awareness of and confidence to address health equity , social determinants of health ( SDoH ), and social determinants of equity ( SDoE ) in their work. A nationally representative population of US local and state GPH employees (n = 41 890) were surveyed through the 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS 2021). Self-reported awareness and confidence were explored by self-identified racial and ethnic group identity, public health degree attainment, and supervisory status. GPH employees reported higher levels of awareness across concepts ( health equity -71%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 70.5-71.6; SDoH -62%, 95% CI: 62.3-63.5; SDoE -48%, 95% CI: 47.2-48.4) than confidence ( health equity -48%, 95% CI: 47.8-49.0; SDoH -46%, 95% CI: 45.4-46.7; SDoE -34%, 95% CI: 33.4-34.6). Self-identified Black or African American employees reported higher confidence across all concepts ( health equity -56%, 95% CI: 54.3-57.6; SDoH -52%, 95% CI: 50.8-54.1; SDoE -43%, 95% CI: 41.3-44.6) compared to other self-identified racial groups. Employees with a PH degree reported higher confidence across all concepts ( health equity -65%, 95% CI: 63.8-68.8; SDoH -73%, 95% CI: 71.3-74.1; SDoE -39%, 95% CI: 36.9-40.1) compared with employees without a PH degree ( health equity -45%, 95% CI: 44.8-46.1; SDoH -41%, 95% CI: 40.6-41.9; SDoE -33%, 95% CI: 32.6-33.8). We found an inverse relationship between supervisory status and confidence to address SDoE : Nonsupervisors reported higher confidence (35%, 95% CI: 29.2-31.9) than supervisors (31%, 95% CI: 29.2-31.9), managers (31%, 95% CI: 28.8-32.6), and executives (32%, 95% CI: 27.5-34.4). PH WINS 2021 reveals that GPH employees are aware of equity-related concepts but lack confidence to address them. Public health agencies should build employees' confidence by prioritizing and operationalizing equity internally and externally in collaboration with communities and partners.

Race-related Stressors and Resources for Resilience: Associations With Emotional Health, Conduct Problems, and Academic Investment Among African American Early Adolescents.

African American youths in the United States grow up in a society with a long, pervasive, and living history of interpersonal and institutional racism. This study examined whether race-related stressors (awareness and experiences of racism) and resources for resilience (racial-ethnic connectedness and perceptions of embedded achievement) were associated with emotional health, conduct problems, and academic investment among African American early adolescents. Embedded achievement is the belief that achievement is a part of one's racial or ethnic group identity. Participants were recruited from an urban school and youth club (N= 75, mean age= 11.6 years, 71% male participants). Structured interviews were administered to youths. Adjusting for age and sex, racial-ethnic connectedness and embedded achievement were associated with fewer emotional problems and conduct problems. In addition, embedded achievement was associated with greater academic investment. Racial-ethnic connectedness modified associations between awareness and experiences of racism and emotional problems; racism was associated with more emotional problems, but only among youths with lower levels of racial-ethnic connectedness. Youths' perceptions of embedded achievement modified an association between experiences of racism and conduct problems; experiences of racism were associated with more conduct problems, but only among youths with lower perceptions of embedded achievement. Race-related resources for resilience appear to promote emotional, behavioral, and academic well-being among African American youths and to confer protection when youths are confronted with the stress and adversity of racism. Health professionals can advocate for policies and practices to combat racism and to foster racial pride and connectedness among youths of color.

From One Generation to the Next: Hmong American Adolescents’ Views of Maternal Racial Socialization

This study investigated Hmong American adolescents’ perceptions of their mother as helping them understand race as Asian American youths in an urban context. Twenty-four Hmong American adolescents ages 14 to 18 ( M = 15.8; 67% female; 54% U.S. born, 46% born in Southeast Asia) participated in semi-structured interviews, following approval of the Institutional Review Board. Directed content analysis revealed three themes of racial, ethnic, and neutral socialization practices. Frequently, responses reflected the categories of racism awareness, racial group identification, and diversity awareness, as well as no discussion of race (racial socialization theme). Although the study asked specifically about racial socialization, some responses indicated that mothers engaged in cultural practices that included cultural markers and ethnic group identification (ethnic socialization theme). A few responses also represented neutral socialization that emphasized good behavior. Emergent categories included intra-racial discrimination and bicultural socialization. More frequently than girls, boys reported having discrimination experiences without discussing race with mothers. Girls reported more intra-racial discrimination messages, as well as bicultural and neutral messages than boys. These findings can help Hmong American adolescents and their families continue to build successful strategies for dealing with racism and discrimination, and support understanding how Asian Americans address racialized experiences in the U.S.

Cognitive Impairment Trends Among Older Adults in a Medicaid Home and Community-Based Service Program

Cognitive impairment (CI) is an important risk factor for nursing home admission, but little is known about CI among older adults in Medicaid HCBS programs. Racial and ethnic group CI disparities are found among community-dwelling older adults, but these CI trends have not been explored in Medicaid HCBS populations. In this study, we determined how CI is associated with older adults’ racial and ethnic group identification and educational attainment in Connecticut’s Medicaid HCBS program. The study cohort includes program enrollees age >65 during January-March 2019 (N=3,520). CI measures include: Cognitive Performance Scale (CPS), ranging from 0-8 (cognitively intact to very severe impairment); and a dichotomous measure incorporating Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia diagnosis (ADRD) and CPS score signifying moderate or severe CI. Study cohort characteristics: 75.7% female; age, mean(sd)=79.1(8.2); Non-Hispanic White=47.8%; Non-Hispanic Black=15.9%; Non-Hispanic Other=2.7%; Hispanic=33.6%; HS education=21.7%; mean(sd) CPS score=2.7(1.9); 36.1% with ADRD/high CPS2 score. In multivariate regression models adjusting for age and sex, CPS scores were not independently associated with race and ethnicity, and the likelihood of having ADRD/high CPS scores did not differ by race and ethnicity (all p-values >0.05). In these same models, persons with more than high school education had significantly lower CPS scores (b=-.12; p<.001), and significantly lower likelihood of having ADRD/high CPS scores (AOR=0.61; p<.001), than persons with less than high school education. We conclude that educational level is independently associated with CI, but race and ethnicity are not in this cohort. Policy and practice implications will be discussed.

Racial Identity, Group Consciousness, and Attitudes: A Framework for Assessing Multiracial Self‐Classification

AbstractMultiracial self‐classifiers are the fastest‐growing racial population in the United States. While their rise signals a departure from norms of hypodescent, little is known about the sociopolitical meanings attached to multiracial labels. Here, we develop a theoretical framework for understanding multiracials’ sense of racial group identity, linked fate, and racial attitudes. Examining a national opinion survey that samples more than 1200 multiracial adults, we compare the identity and attitudinal profiles of the two largest multiracial groups in the United States—White‐Asians and White‐Blacks—with those of their component monoracial groups. We find that while White‐Asians and White‐Blacks often distinguish themselves from their component races, on balance, the assertion of dual racial membership signals greater solidarity and/or affect toward the minority race. These findings suggest that members of these multiracial populations are likely to align themselves relatively more with their minority background than with Whites on political issues that are racial in nature.

“In My Heart, I Am Cambodian”: Symbolic Ethnicity among Parents Who Adopt Transracially

Research finds that white Americans primarily draw upon ancestral ties to assert symbolic ethnicity, often relying on figurative elements to create identity. Through 47 interviews with 56 white adoptive parents, who attend culture camps, the authors find a new avenue through which whites may exercise their ethnic options: domestic and transnational transracial adoption. Drawing on their experience of parenting transracially adopted children, we find that some adoptive parents claim identification as members of their adopted children’s racial and/or ethnic group. In explaining their newly acquired ethnicity, we identify three discursive strategies deployed by adoptive parents—cultural integration, transformative inclusion, and racial diffusion. While adoption of their child’s racial and/or ethnic group identification may seem unexpected, it allows for the reframing of parents’ identity, creates notions of shared racial experience, and deepens commitment to symbolic elements. These findings have implications for contemporary understandings of white Americans’ symbolic ethnicity.

Racial Identity Profiles Among Suicidal Black Women: A Replication and Extension Study

Despite increasing rates of suicidality among African American women, relatively little is known about culturally-specific factors relevant to their suicidality. Thus, our objectives were to: (1) determine whether previously-identified racial identity profiles replicated in a clinical sample of African American women and (2) examine whether profiles differed on suicidal ideation, hopelessness, and depressive symptoms. In a sample of 198 low-income, African American women ( Mage = 36), latent profile analysis supported a 5-class solution: Undifferentiated (average on all subscales), Detached (lower than the average on most subscales), Afrocentric (low public regard, high nationalism), Multiculturalist (high public regard, private regard, centrality), and Alienated (markedly lower than average on all subscales). Subgroups with higher racial group identification and more positive feelings about being African American endorsed less suicidal ideation and hopelessness than other subgroups. This study characterizes patterns of racial identity among a clinical sample and offers insights into how subgroups of individuals with different combinations of racial identity may be more likely to experience suicidality.

Black Votes Count, But Do They Matter? Symbolic Empowerment and the Jackson-Obama Mobilizing Effect on Gender and Age Cohorts

Using data from the 1984–1988 National Black Election Studies as well as the 2008 and 2012 American National Election Studies, we provide a comprehensive study of African American political behavior with support for Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson serving as explanatory variables alongside other sources of variation—gender and age cohorts. Results show that African American voters who preferred Jackson and Obama in the 1984 and 2008 Democratic nominating contests were more likely to proselytize, attend a campaign rally or political meeting, donate money, and wear a campaign button. While opposition to Ronald Reagan and George Bush, church membership, involvement in Black political organizations were also linked to behavior, racial group identification (linked fate) had a less consistent effect. Both Obama’s candidacy like that of Jackson’s had an empowering effect on African American women—particularly, those of the civil rights generation—as was the case for Obama supporters of a younger cohort.

Interactions between oxytocin receptor gene and intergroup relationship on empathic neural responses to others' pain.

Empathic neural responses to others’ suffering are subject to both social and biological influences. The present study tested the hypothesis that empathic neural responses to others’ pain are more flexible in an intergroup context in G/G than A/A carriers of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) (rs53576). We recorded event-related brain potentials to painful vs neutral expressions of Asian and Caucasian faces that were assigned to a fellow team or an opponent team in Chinese carriers of G/G or A/A allele of OXTR. We found that G/G carriers showed greater neural responses at 136–176 ms (P2) over the frontal/central region to painful vs neutral expressions of faces with shared either racial or mini group identity. In contrast, A/A carriers showed significant empathic neural responses in the P2 time window only to the faces with both shared racial and mini group identity. Moreover, the racial in-group bias in empathic neural responses varied across individuals’ empathy traits and ethnic identity for G/G but not A/A carriers. Our findings provide electrophysiological evidence for greater flexibility of empathic neural responses in intergroup contexts in G/G (vs A/A) carriers of OXTR and suggest interactions between OXTR and intergroup relationships on empathy for others’ suffering.

Racial Identity and Voting: Conceptualizing White Identity in Spatial Terms

Recent political events have prompted an examination of the analytical tools and conceptual frameworks used in political science to understand voting and candidate choice. Scholars in the behavioral tradition have highlighted the empirical relationship between racial resentment and anti-black affect among white voters during and after President Obama’s successful run for re-election. The theoretical role of white identity within the context of the privileged status of this racial group has seen much less scholarly attention by political scientists, particularly with respect to racial group identification and its implications. To address this lacuna, we argue that racial identification among white voters can be conceived of as a utility-based trait relevant to candidate choice, combining a social-psychological approach of group membership together with a rational choice perspective. This conceptualization of the political utility of white racial identity provides wider conceptual latitude for empirical tests and explanations of voting in U.S. elections.

Learning and Socializing Preferences in Hong Kong Chinese Children.

The impact of social group information on the learning and socializing preferences of Hong Kong Chinese children were examined. Specifically, the degree to which variability in racial out-group exposure affects children's use of race to make decisions about unfamiliar individuals (Chinese, White, Southeast Asian) was investigated. Participants (N=212; Mage =60.51months) chose functions for novel objects after informants demonstrated their use; indicated with which peer group member to socialize; and were measured on racial group recognition, preference, and identification. Overall, children preferred in-group members, though out-group exposure and the relative social status of out-groups mattered as well. At a young age, children's specific experiences with different races influence how they learn and befriend others across racial group lines.

Self-Rated Health, Discrimination, and Racial Group Identity: the Consequences of Ethnicity and Nativity Among Black Americans

In this study, we examine how ethnic heterogeneity and nativity shape the relationships among self-rated health, discrimination, and racial group identity for a representative sample of African Americans, U.S.-born Caribbean Blacks, and foreign-born Caribbean Blacks (National Survey of American Life; N = 4091). Our study includes two forms of discrimination, major lifetime discrimination and day-to-day discrimination, as well as two forms of racial group identity, closeness to other Blacks and Black group evaluation. Closeness to other Blacks improves the self-rated health of U.S.-born Caribbean Blacks who reported experiencing high levels of major discrimination. Black group evaluation improved the health of foreign-born Caribbean Blacks, who reported low levels of major discrimination, and African Americans, with high levels of major discrimination. Finally, for both foreign-born Caribbean Blacks and African Americans, who experience high discrimination, Black group evaluation weakens the influence of day-to-day discrimination on self-rated health.

Black Like Me: how political communication changes racial group identification and its implications

ABSTRACT Extant literature suggests that people who are highly identified with a particular group are likely to make choices in line with that group’s interests. But, in the realm of politics, we know very little about how group identification transitions into a salient political identification. What is the mechanism that makes this transition happen? I argue that this transition and prioritization hinges on political communication that makes a group member believe that they are relevant to the political group. To engage this argument, I focus on Black political identification due to the strong empirical evidence that demonstrates that Black political identification, or linked fate, is fundamental to explaining the political decisions and behavior of Black Americans. Using experimental research, I test the effects of racialized political discourse by varying which segments of the Black community are being defined as a part of the broader “Black” interest. I find that Blacks who are marginalized in mainstream and intra-group discourse (moveable Blacks) show significant change in their strength of political identification with the racial group when their interests are being framed as major interests for the group.