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

Racial Socialization of Biracial Youth: Maternal Messages and Approaches to Address Discrimination

Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies
Volume 62, Issue 1 (February 2013)
pages 140–153
DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-3729.2012.00748.x

Alethea Rollins, Instructor, Child and Family Development
University of Central Missouri

Andrea G. Hunter, Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
University of North Carolina, Greensboro

We explored how mothers of biracial youth prepare their children to navigate diverse racial ecologies and experiences of racism and discrimination. A qualitative thematic analysis was used to identify racial socialization messages mothers used and emergent racial socialization approaches. Mothers of biracial youth engaged in the full range of racial socialization discussed in the literature, including cultural, minority, self-development, egalitarian, and silent racial socialization. These messages varied by the biracial heritage of the youth, such that mothers of biracial youth with Black heritage were more likely to provide self-development racial socialization messages, whereas mothers of biracial youth without Black heritage were more likely to provide silent racial socialization. On the basis of the array of racial socialization messages mothers delivered, we identified three emergent approaches: promotive, protective, and passive racial socialization.

Read the entire article here.

Racially Socializing Biracial Youth: A Cultural Ecological Study of Parental Influences on Racial Identity

2009

Alethea Rollins
University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Advisor:
Andrea G. Hunter, Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Studies
University of North Carolina, Greensboro

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy

As our society becomes increasingly multiracial, it is imperative that parents, teachers, counselors, and researchers consider the complex processes associated with crossing racial boundaries and occupying a biracial social location. Few investigations have explored racial socialization within biracial families, and none have empirically examined the relationship between racial socialization and the multidimensional components of racial identity. Using a cultural ecological framework, this study explored the racial socialization messages used by mothers of biracial adolescents and evaluated the relative impact of these messages on the racial identity of biracial adolescents. Data for this study were taken from a public-use subsample of the longitudinal Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study (MADICS; Eccles, 1997). For this investigation, participants were 104 biracial adolescents and their mothers. Mothers of biracial adolescents engaged in a full range of racial socialization messages, including cultural, minority, mainstream, egalitarian, and no racial socialization messages. Racial socialization varied by maternal race, such that Black mothers were most likely to use mainstream socialization messages while White and other minority mothers were more likely to provide no direct racial socialization. In general, Black mothers provided more socialization than their White and other minority counterparts. Mothers of biracial adolescents reported using a combination of racial socialization messages, which can be conceptually reduced into three racial socialization strategies, namely, proactive, protective, and no racial socialization strategies. Proactive socialization was associated with racial identity salience, such that biracial adolescents who received proactive racial socialization reported less racial salience. In addition, maternal race was associated with racial salience, private regard, and exploration, such that biracial adolescents with a White mother reported lower racial salience, private regard, and racial exploration.

Read the entire dissertation here.

Deconstructing Race: Biracial Adolescents’ Fluid Racial Self-labels

2008-12-01

Alethea Rollins
University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Andrea G. Hunter, Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Studies
University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Biracial people shatter the idea of effortless categorization of race, identity, and group membership. Multirace membership forces scholars to examine what race is, how they use it, and what it tells them about people. Lopez (1994) defined race as, “neither an essence nor an illusion, but rather an ongoing, contradictory, self-reinforcing process subject to the macro forces of social and political struggle and the micro effects of daily decisions” (p. 42). Studies of biracial people require that we explore the boundaries, intersections, and fluidity of race and challenge us to deconstruct race as a social construct.

The aims of this investigation are to:

• Explore similarities and differences in adolescent racial self-labels reported by parents and adolescents
• Illustrate fluidity and change in adolescent racial self-labels over time
• Examine method variance in adolescents’ selection of racial self-labels

Read the poster summary here.