Mixed Race Studies

Multiethnic Children, Youth, and Families: Emerging Challenges to the Behavioral Sciences and Public Policy

Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies
Volume 62, Issue 1 (February 2013) (Special Issue on Multiethnic Families)
pages 1–4
DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-3729.2012.00760.x

Hamilton I. McCubbin
University of Hawaii, Manoa

Laurie “Lali” D. McCubbin, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology
Washington State University

Gina Samuels, Associate Professor
School of Social Service Administration
University of Chicago

Wei Zhang, Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Hawaii, Manoa

Jason Sievers, Academic Coordinator
Washington State University

The nation’s minority population is now over 100 million, so that about one in three U.S. residents is a person of color. In the period from 1980 to 2000, the European American population in the United States grew in size by 8%. In this same time period, the African American population increased by 30%, the Latino/Latina populations by 143%, and the American Indian/Alaskan Native populations by 46%. In striking contrast, in this time period the Asian American population in the United States increased by 190%. This transformation of the U.S. population configuration was facilitated by an increase in interracial marriages, resulting in a substantial increase in persons with multiethnic ancestries. The diversity within ethnic groups as reflected in the 2000 U.S. Census was fostered by a change in policy allowing the Census to record the multiethnic nature of the U.S. population.

This special Issue of Family Relations, with its 18 articles, acknowledges the emerging and distinct importance of understanding children, youth, and families of multiethnic ancestries. As a framework for understanding this special issue, we believe it is important to place multiethnicity in a historical and social context to foster an appreciation of the salience of this social change within the U.S. population, if not in the world. In 1989, the United States’ adoption of what is known as “the hypodescent rule” suppressed the identification of multiethnic individuals and children in particular by requiring children to be classified as belonging to the race of the non-White parent. Interracial marriage between Whites and Blacks was deemed illegal in most states through the 20th century. California and western U.S. laws prohibited White-Asian American marriages until the 1950s. Since the 1967 Supreme Court decision, which ruled that antimiscegenation laws were unconstitutional, there has been a predictable increase in or reporting of the number of interracial couples and mixed-race children. The increase over the past 30 years has been dramatic when we consider the proportions of children living in families with interracial couples. The proportion of children living in interracial families increased from 1.5% in 1970 to 2.4% in 1980, 3.6% in 1990, and 6.4% in 2000. In the state of Hawaii, the proportion of children living in multiethnic families grew to over 31% in 2000. In comparison to the 6.4% nationally, one in three children is being socialized in multiethnic family environments in the state of Hawaii (Lee, 2010).

This collection of original work on multiethnic children, youth, and families begins with the Census Bureau report on race data collected in the 2000 Census and the 2010 Census. Jones and Bullock provide the two decennial censuses on the distributions of people reporting multiple races in response to the census. In identifying the concentrations of multiethnic individuals and families at the national level and with geographic comparisons, the spotlight is placed on the changing and complex racial and ethnic diversity in the United States. Trask addresses the growing number of multiethnic immigrant and transnational families in the United States and abroad. The continuity in and dynamic relationships that emerge as a result of immigrations and transnational migrations increases our demand for more knowledge about the individual culture and history of the procreated multiethnic family units…

Read the entire article here.

Note by Steven F. Riley: For a limited time, all of the articles in this special issue can be downloaded for free.

• INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE ON MULTIETHNIC FAMILIES
  • Multiethnic Children, Youth, and Families: Emerging Challenges to the Behavioral Sciences and Public Policy / Hamilton I. McCubbin, Laurie “Lali” D. McCubbin, Gina Samuels, Wei Zhang and Jason Sievers
• MULTIETHNIC FAMILIES: CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS
  • Understanding Who Reported Multiple Races in the U.S. Decennial Census: Results From Census 2000 and the 2010 Census / Nicholas A. Jones and Jungmiwha J. Bullock
  • Locating Multiethnic Families in a Globalizing World / Bahira Sherif Trask
• MULTIETHNIC FAMILY FORMATION
  • International Marriages Between Eastern European-Born Women and U.S.-Born Men / Polina Levchenko and Catherine Solheim
  • Race-Conscious Adoption Choices, Multiraciality, and Color-blind Racial Ideology / Kathryn A. Sweeney
  • U.S. Families’ Adoption of Chinese Daughters: A Narrative Analysis of Family Themes in Children’s Books / Jacki Fitzpatrick and Erin Kostina-Ritchey
  • Racial Socialization in Transracial Adoptive Families: Does It Help Adolescents Deal With Discrimination Stress? / Leigh A. Leslie, Jocelyn R. Smith, Katie M. Hrapczynski and Debbie Riley
• RACE AND MULTIETHNIC IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT
  • Racial Identity, Phenotype, and Self-Esteem Among Biracial Polynesian/White Individuals / G. E. Kawika Allen, Patton O. Garriott, Carla J. Reyes and Catherine Hsieh
  • An Application of Ecological Theory to Ethnic Identity Formation Among Biethnic Adolescents /Melinda A. Gonzales-Backen
• PARENTING AND MULTIETHIC FAMILIES
  • “All Colors and Hues”: An Autoethnography of a Multiethnic Family’s Strategies for Bilingualism and Multiculturalism / Kimberley D. Kennedy and Harriett D. Romo
  • Parenting, Family Processes, Relationships, and Parental Support in Multiracial and Multiethnic Families: An Exploratory Study of Youth Perceptions / Elma I. Lorenzo-Blanco, Cristina B. Bares and Jorge Delva
  • Racial Socialization of Biracial Youth: Maternal Messages and Approaches to Address Discrimination / Alethea Rollins and Andrea G. Hunter
  • The Importance of Family, Race, and Gender for Multiracial Adolescent Well-being / Sarah Schlabach
• RISK AND RESILIENCE IN MULTIETHNIC FAMILIES
  • Multiracial Children and Poverty: Evidence From the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of Kindergartners / Jenifer Bratter and Rachel Tolbert Kimbro
  • Microaggressions Within Families: Experiences of Multiracial People / Kevin L. Nadal, Julie Sriken, Kristin C. Davidoff, Yinglee Wong and Kathryn McLean
  • Intimate Partner Violence in Interracial and Monoracial Couples / Brittny A. Martin, Ming Cui, Koji Ueno and Frank D. Fincham
  • Mixed Resilience: A Study of Multiethnic Mexican American Stress and Coping in Arizona / Kelly F. Jackson, Thera Wolven and Kimberly Aguilera
  • Ethnic Variations in Factors Contributing to the Life Satisfaction of Migrant Wives in South Korea / Miai Sung, Meejung Chin, Jaerim Lee and Soyoung Lee
  • Using the Multicultural Family Support Centers and Adjustment Among Interethnic and Interracial Families in South Korea / Grace H. Chung and Joan P. Yoo

Mixed-race youth feel less cohesion with mothers, but greater independence

University of Michigan News Service
2013-02-26

Contact: Jared Wadley

ANN ARBOR—Multiethnic and mixed-race youth feel less satisfied with their moms—but more independent—compared to other youth, according to a new University of Michigan study.

U-M researcher Elma Lorenzo-Blanco and colleagues compared parenting and family-related experiences between multiethnic/mixed-race youth and those from one racial/ethnic background.

Data came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which included responses from nearly 9,000 12- to 17-year-olds. Teens and preteens were first sampled in 1997 and assessed annually in several areas—such as education, drug use, mental health and family relationships/events—until 2008.

The youth assessed the quality of mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationships, as well as parental monitoring, support and control.

Mixed-race youth had the lowest mean score and white youth the highest for mother-adolescent relationships and maternal support, the study showed. For father-adolescent relationships, African-American youth had the lowest score, while whites had the highest…

Read the entire article here.

Parenting, Family Processes, Relationships, and Parental Support in Multiracial and Multiethnic Families: An Exploratory Study of Youth Perceptions

Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies
Volume 62, Issue 1 (February 2013) (Special Issue on Multiethnic Families)
pages 125–139
DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-3729.2012.00751.x

Elma I. Lorenzo-Blanco
Departments of Psychology and Women’s Studies
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Cristina B. Bares, Assistant Professor of Social Work
Virginia Commonwealth University

Jorge Delva, Professor of Social Work
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Mixed-race or multiethnic youth are at risk for mental and physical health problems. We used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 to compare family characteristics of adolescents of a mixed-race or multiethnic background with those of a monoracial or monoethnic background. Mixed-race or multiethnic youth reported feeling less supported by parents and reported less satisfactory parent-adolescent relationships. Mixed-race/multiethnic youth were more like monoracial White youth in terms of being independent but were more like racial or ethnic minorities (African Americans, Hispanics) in regard to family activities. Reasons for these findings are explored. We discuss the need for future research on the experiences of mixed-race/multiethnic youth.

A growing number of people in the United States are born into interracial, multiethnic, or mixed-race families. From 2000 to 2009, the number of self-identified mixed-race individuals increased by 32% (from 6,826,222 to 9,009,073; U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). This mixed-race, multiethnic population appears to be young, as over 50% reported being under the age of 24 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). As the number of mixed-race or multiethnic (MR/ME) children in the United States continues to grow, it is important to understand their development. Furthermore, nascent research with MR/ME youth indicates that these youth are at higher risk for mental, physical, and behavior problems compared to monoracial and monoethnic youth (e.g., Bolland et al., 2007; Udry, Li, & Hendrickson-Smith, 2003). Research with these youth has not examined the relationships these youth have with their parents and families, factors that may be associated with their apparently higher risk. Building on prior work (Bolland et al., 2007; Udry et al., 2003), we examined perceived parenting and family-related variables associated with youth well-being. Specifically, the present study examined how parenting (e.g., parental control, monitoring, and supportiveness) and family experience (e.g., eating dinner as a family, attending family events, parent-youth relationships, advice seeking from parents) perceptions of MR/ME youth differed from those of monoracial youth (i.e., Black, Hispanic, White, and other).

Read the entire article here.

Parenting in Multiracial Families

2013-01-20

My name is Chloe Jhangiani and I am a second year master’s social work student conducting research for my thesis at Smith College School for Social Work. I am recruiting multiracial adults with racial heritage from two or more racial groups to participate on a study about how their parents approached race and racism when they were children.  Through this study, I hope to better understand how multiracial individuals are helped to cope with the stressors of being a multiracial individual.  My hope is that this research can help inform parents, clinicians, and educators on the complexities of the multiracial experience.

The study takes approximately 20-30 minutes and involves answering a series of questions on a secure online survey site.  Answers to the survey questions are anonymous. Participation in this study is voluntary and you can withdraw at any time until you submit the survey. This study has been approved by the Smith College School for Social work Human Subjects Review Committee.

If you are interested please click on the link: http://fluidsurveys.com/s/surveys/parenting-multiracial-families/

Also, please feel free to share this link with other students or organizations you think might have interest in participating.

Please email me at multiracialresearch@gmail.com if you have any questions regarding participation or the survey itself. 
 
Thank you for your interest and participation,
 
Chloe Jhangiani
School for Social Work
Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts

The Pedagogy of the Meaning of Racism: Reconciling a Discordant Discourse

Social Work: A Journal of the National Association of Social Workers
Volume 57, Issue 3 (July 2012)
pages 225-234
DOI: 10.1093/sw/sws009

Carlos Hoyt, Jr., MSW, LICSW, Associate Dean of Students
Phillips Academy Andover, Andover, Massachusetts

Racism is a term on which a great deal of discourse does and should turn in all realms of social work theory, practice, policy, and research. Because it is a concept heavily freighted with multiple and conflicting interpretations and used in a wide variety of ways, the idea and action of racism is not easy to teach or learn in a simple and straightforward manner. It is a term the meaning of which has been the subject of so much argument and mutation that its utility as a clear and reliable descriptor of a crucial form of ideology or behavior is less than certain. In this article, an analysis of the dispute over the proper definition of racism is undertaken, and an approach to teaching about the term is offered in an effort to provide both teachers and students with a clear, consistent, and useful understanding of this important and challenging phenomenon.

Having taught courses in which the concept of racism is a phenomenon of critical focus, I have been consistently struck by the challenge students confront when the subject of how to define this term becomes a topic of consideration and discussion. Although several key concepts in the study of diversity, social bias, and social justice are somewhat nebulous and overlapping (for example, “culture,” “race,” and “ethnicity”), there is perhaps no term that provokes the level of confusion, consternation, and conflict that the term “racism” does. As will be seen in this article, this is due to the dispute that has destabilized use of the term for much of its short history and boils down to a sharp disagreement among both professionals and laypeople about whether the original definition of racism, the belief in the superiority/inferiority of people based on racial identity, should be revised to exclusively and strictly mean the use of power to preserve and perpetuate the advantages of the dominant social identity group—that is, white people in American society.

In this article, an analysis of the dispute about the definition of racism within academia will be conducted to elucidate the arguments by those who promote the revised definition and those who resist the revision. Following this analysis, based on the strengths and weaknesses of each, a pedagogical approach to teaching the definition of racism that resolves the dispute will be presented. At the outset it will be useful to provide the definitions of key terms in the discourse on racism. The following definitions, while not copied verbatim from any dictionary, reflect what can be found in standard dictionaries and usage and will serve as the meanings of the terms used in this article.

DEFINITIONS OF CRITICAL TERMS IN THE DISCOURSE ON RACISM

Prejudice—preconceived opinion not based on reason or actual experience; bias, partiality.

Racism—(original definition) the belief that all members of a purported race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or other races. Racism is a particular form of prejudice defined by preconceived erroneous beliefs about race and members of racial groups.

If one is to be thoroughgoing a la Muir, then racism is in evidence at the point that one subscribes to the notion of race itself, because belief in race is the fallacious prerequisite for the belief in differences between races (Muir, 1993).

Power—the capacity to exert force on or over something or someone.

Oppression—the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.

With a clear understanding of these terms as the atomic elements of the discourse on the definition of racism, we can proceed with an elucidation of the problem…

Read or purchase the article here.

Triple Jeopardy: Family Stresses and Subsequent Divorce Following the Adoption of Racially and Ethnically Mixed Children

Journal of Divorce
Volume 4, Issue 4, 1982
pages 43-55
DOI: 10.1300/J279v04n04_03

Perihan Aral Rosenthal, MD

The adoption of racially, ethnically, or culturally different older children creates a stressful process of integration for both the children and parents. If such children are placed in families already troubled by severe marital or emotional problems, the children’s and parents’ difficulties escalate disastrously. To prevent the kind of aggravated problems described in this article, mental health professionals must educate and sensitize adoption agencies and prospective parents to the hazards.

Read or purchase the article here.

On adoption, race does matter

The Guardian
2012-12-21

Oona King

Like Michael Gove, I used to believe a loving family was all. But I’ve heard from too many black adoptees who are struggling with their identity

“My social worker is racist,” said a softly-spoken 10-year-old white boy. “She says I shouldn’t stay with my foster carer because my carer is black.” This child was one of 20 in the care system who told the Lords select committee on adoption legislation about their experiences, during a review of proposed changes to the Adoption and Children Act 2002.

The government, spurred on by the education secretary, Michael Gove (himself adopted as a baby), is determined to ensure “race doesn’t matter” when it comes to finding families for children in care. While Gove’s motives are understandable, the Lords committee, on which I sit, decided this week that his main proposal – the end to the obligation on social workers to give “due consideration” to race, religion and ethnicity when assessing adoptions – should be scrapped.

We would all agree with Gove in principle that race shouldn’t matter – and certainly in the specific case of the young boy in foster care it should not. But for many black and mixed-race children, ethnicity shapes their experience. To imagine it doesn’t is to imagine the earth is flat. I’ve lived that experience and I know it’s real…

…The fact that we were – on the surface – separated by race, nagged me as a child. It fed into other vague feelings around being different and “not belonging”. I was the only mixed race child in my class, both in primary and secondary school, although in those days I was often called, at best, half-caste, at worst, mongrel. But it still wasn’t such a terrible thing. After all, I had a loving, capable parent. And that’s what I want for all Britain’s kids languishing in our care system…

Read the entire article here.

A Sad Case of Amalgamation

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Volume 19, Number 211
1860-09-05
page 1, column 6
Source: Brooklyn Public Library’s Brooklyn Collection

The reporter of the Philadelphia Press has been around among the colored folks of Philadelphia, and In the course of his peregrination he met with the following case of practical amalgamation:

We were next gratified with something previously new to us—a case of practical amalgamation. We had wrought up our feelings to such abhorrence of the intermarriage of races, that nothing short of the absolute misery of families so produced was expected. The chronicle, however, must be true to the experience, and we are compelled to state that this single case of wedded amalgamation was not so repulsive in its effects as we bad wished it to be.

Being cautioned by the officer to say nothing of our prejudices, we passed through a cleanly-arched alley, and trod by a row of rear brick buildings. Hastily glancing through an open door, we saw a thin, neat-looking white woman industriously sewing. At her feet a negro child was playing and she stooped to kiss it as the door post hid her from view.  A black man was chopping wood in the yard. Three yellow children clustered around him, and at the moment the child which bad been gambolling at the woman’s feet tottered from the house and called him ‘Pappy!’

The man looked angrily at us, but he said nothing.

‘Do your children still help you at the market, Tom?’ said the officer.

‘Yes, sir,’ said the man, chopping away at the stick of wood. As he seemed adverse to making any reply, the officer said:

‘Such children as these I never knew—up at 5 o’clock every morning, and wheeling a heavy go-cart through the streets; they are going someday to be richer than their father.’

‘I hope so,’ said the man.  ‘God knows I am poor enough.’ He continued to chop.

‘Nonsense,’ said the officer. ‘Why, Tom, you take care of your money, never drink. How much better off are vou than your neighbors?’

‘I know that,’ said the man, interestedly, leaning upon his axe, ‘but I want to be rich enough to leave this street. I don’t want these boys to grow up with low people or to live in this unhealthy neighborhood. They are good boys, but I don’t like to tell them so. They make—the three of them—as much wages as I do.’

We understood from our guide that the negro and the woman were legally married; that she had been poor, and his attentions to her in poverty had placed her under obligations which ended in wedlock. As we passed out and peeped stealthily again at the woman, fondling her negro babe, she espied us and looked straightforwardly into our faces. There was no shame upon her cheeks.  She seemed to clasp her child still closer, and as we passed out of view we heard her singing.

‘After all,’ said the officer, ‘these children are better off than those miserable mulattoes who have no recognised fathers. If amalgamation is to become an institution, I prefer it sanctioned by marriage.’

We looked forward to that woman’s career. With the existing feelings of society, thrift and integrity will benefit her little; for the life she has chosen will ever cling to her, and every social advance she may make with her dusky husband will make her more opprobrious and abhorred. It is a hard case.

Dr. Yaba Blay Explores ‘One-Drop’ Rule [VIDEO]

NewsOne: For Black America
2012-12-14

Jeff Mays

Remember when President Barack Obama won in 2008 and pundits started asking if the United States was post-racial because we had a Black man in the White House?
 
Well, people like Dr. Yaba Blay (pictured) knew better.
 
Blay, an assistant teaching professor of Africana Studies at Drexel University, explores Black racial identity and the politics of skin color with her creative and thought-provoking (1)ne Drop project.
 
The one-drop rule refers to the centuries-old rule that deemed anyone with any sort of African heritage to be Black, even if you are of mixed heritage. It’s the idea that one drop of Black blood makes you Black. The rule is still alive and well today, which has been discussed by people of mixed heritage like Obama and Halle Berry.
 
And it’s an issue we play out with one another. Four hundred years after Blacks were first brought to this country as slaves, it wasn’t uncommon for African Americans to discriminate against one another based on the color of their complexions. Just look at the complexions of women considered to be attractive in the media productions of African Americans. How many of our politicians are dark-skinned?
 
“Many of us would like to believe that we have a Black President and it’s how many years since enslavement and that we’ve come a long way and these things don’t matter,” said Blay…

Read the entire article here.

Association of Contextual Factors with Drug Use and Binge Drinking among White, Native American, and Mixed-Race Adolescents in the General Population

Journal of Youth and Adolescence
Volume 41, Issue 11 (November 2012)
pages 1426-1441
DOI: 10.1007/s10964-012-9789-0

Hsing-Jung Chen
Department of Social Work
Fu-Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, Taiwan

Sundari Balan, Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Psychiatry
Washington University in St. Louis

Rumi Kato Price, Research Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Washington University in St. Louis

Large-scale surveys have shown elevated risk for many indicators of substance abuse among Native American and Mixed-Race adolescents compared to other minority groups in the United States. This study examined underlying contextual factors associated with substance abuse among a nationally representative sample of White, Native American, and Mixed-Race adolescents 12–17 years of age, using combined datasets from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH 2006–2009, N = 46,675, 48.77% female). Native American adolescents displayed the highest rate of past-month binge drinking and past-year illicit drug use (14.06 and 30.91%, respectively). Results of a logistic regression that included seven predictors of social bonding, individual views of substance use, and delinquent peer affiliations showed that friendships with delinquent peers and negative views of substance use were associated significantly with both substance abuse outcomes among White and Mixed-Race adolescents and, to a lesser extent, Native American adolescents. The association of parental disapproval with binge drinking was stronger for White than for Native American adolescents. Greater attention to specific measures reflecting racial groups’ contextual and historical differences may be needed to delineate mechanisms that discourage substance abuse among at-risk minority adolescent populations.

Read the entire article here.