Mixed Race Studies

Implications of Racial Self-Identification, Racial Ancestry, and Racial Context for Depressive Symptoms, Achievement, and Self-Esteem Among Multiracial Adolescents

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
Montreal Convention Center
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2006-08-11
32 pages

Melissa Herman, Assistant Professor, Sociology
Dartmouth University

This paper describes the impact of racial self-identification, racial ancestry, and racial composition of contexts on measures of depressive symptoms, achievement, and self-esteem among 1,417 multiracial youth and 7,310 monoracial youth ages 14-19. Comparisons are made both between multi- and monoracial groups, and within groups of multiracial respondents who self-identify in different single-race categories. Results show that racial ancestry, self-identification, and context are significantly related to these developmental outcomes. For multiracial youth, self-identifying as Black or Hispanic is associated with lower grades while simply having Black ancestry (regardless of self-identification) is not. Net of other factors, neither ancestry nor identification appear to have a significant impact on depressive symptoms among monoracial students but they have a significant impact for multi-racial part-Blacks and part-Hispanics. Racial context showed a significant impact only for neighborhood: the lower percentage of whites in a multiracial youth’s neighborhood, the lower his or her grades.

Read the entire paper here.

Forced to Choose: Some Determinants of Racial Identification

Child Development
May/June 2004
Volume 75, Number 3
Pages 730-748

Melissa Herman, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Dartmouth University

This paper categorizes multiracial youth (N=1,496) ages 14 to 19 and compares them with other and with monoracial youth on identity development measures.  The multiracial categories used here are derived from youths’ reports of their own and their parents’ race(s).  Comparisons are made within groups of multiracial respondents who make different choices among single-race categories.  Results show differences between sub-groups in strength and importance of ethnic identity, self-esteem, and perceptions of ethnic discrimination.  Multinomial logistic regression show further that physiognomy, ethnic identity, and race of coresident parent(s) are significantly associated with reported race.  Also related to racial identification among part-Hispanic youth are racial distribution and socioeconomic status of their neighborhoods and the racial distribution of their schools.

Read the entire article here.