Mixed Race Studies

Socioemotional wellbeing of mixed race/ethnicity children in the UK and US: Patterns and mechanisms

SSM – Population Health
Volume 5, August 2018
pages 147-159
DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2018.06.010

James Nazroo
Cathie Marsh Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

Afshin Zilanawala
University College London, London, United Kingdom

Meichu Chen
University of Michigan

Laia Bécares
Cathie Marsh Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

Pamela Davis-Kean
University of Michigan

James S. Jackson
University of Michigan

Yvonne Kelly
University College London, London, United Kingdom

Lidia Panico
Institut National d’Etudes Demographiques, Paris, France

Amanda Sacker
University College London, London, United Kingdom

Highlights

• Mixed race/ethnicity children are thought to have poorer socioemotional wellbeing
• We find no evidence that mixed race/ethnicity children have poorer socioemotional wellbeing in a study covering children aged 5/6 in the US and UK
• We find that mixed race/ethnicity children do have socio-economic advantage
• This socio-economic advantage is protective for socioemotional wellbeing

Existing literature suggests that mixed race/ethnicity children are more likely to experience poor socioemotional wellbeing in both the US and the UK, although the evidence is stronger in the US. It is suggested that this inequality may be a consequence of struggles with identity formation, more limited connections with racial/ethnic/cultural heritage, and increased risk of exposure to racism.

Using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (n = 13,734) and the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (n ~ 6250), we examine differences in the socioemotional wellbeing of mixed and non-mixed 5/6 year old children in the UK and US and explore heterogeneity in outcomes across different mixed groups in both locations. We estimate a series of linear regressions to examine the contribution of factors that may explain any observed differences, including socio-economic and cultural factors, and examine the extent to which these processes vary across the two nations.

We find no evidence of greater risk for poor socioemotional wellbeing for mixed race/ethnicity children in both national contexts. We find that mixed race/ethnicity children experience socio-economic advantage compared to their non-mixed minority counterparts and that socio-economic advantage is protective for socioemotional wellbeing. Cultural factors do not contribute to differences in socioemotional wellbeing across mixed and non-mixed groups.

Our evidence suggests then that at age 5/6 there is no evidence of poorer socioemotional wellbeing for mixed race/ethnicity children in either the UK or the US. The contrast between our findings and some previous literature, which reports that mixed race/ethnicity children have poorer socioemotional wellbeing, may reflect changes in the meaning of mixed identities across periods and/or the developmental stage of the children we studied.

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Under and Beyond Constraints: Resource Allocation to Young Children from Biracial Families

American Journal of Sociology
Volume 112, Number 4 (January 2007)
pages 1044–1094
ISSN: 0002-9602/2007/11204-0003
DOI: 10.1086/508793

Simon Cheng, Associate Professor of Sociology
University of Connecticut

Brian Powell, Rudy Professor of Sociology
Indiana University

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99, the authors examine the extent to which biracial families differ from monoracial families in their transmission of resources to young children. In these analyses, the authors demonstrate the utility of distinguishing not only between white—biracial and nonwhite—biracial families and but also between even more refined measures of biracial families (e.g., white father/Asian mother). The authors find that, in most cases, biracial families provide comparable or greater economic and cultural resources to their children than do their monoracial counterparts, but offer fewer advantages in interactional/social resources. This overall pattern remains even after sociodemographic factors are taken into consideration. Exceptions to this pattern also are identified and explored. Implications for our understanding of racial stratification, interracial relations, and the role of both human agency and constraints on intergenerational transmission of resources are discussed.

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Interracial Families and the Racial Identification of Mixed-Race Children: Evidence from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study

Social Forces
Volume 84, Number 2 (December 2005)
pages 1131-1157
DOI: 10.1353/sof.2006.0007

David L. Brunsma, Professor of Sociology
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

In this article, a nationally-representative sample of kindergarten-aged children is used from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to explore the structure of parental racial designation of mixed-race children. The variation in these parental designations of a variety of mixed-race children is described. Parental racial designations in the three most common majority-minority interracial couplings – White/Hispanic, Black/White and Asian/White – are predicted using multinomial logistic regression models. The results may indicate a movement by the parents of these multiracial children away from minority status through racial labeling and towards “multiracial” and “White” – movements that are predicated upon gender, class and context. Critical discussions of the implications of these results as well as directions for future research are offered.

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