Mixed Race Studies

Thinking outside the box: Racial self-identification choice among mixed heritage adolescents

University of Pennsylvania
2009
234 pages
ISBN: 9781109236088

Michele Munoz-Miller

A Dissertation in Education Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

The purpose of this study was to explore how and why adolescents of mixed racial heritage racially self-identify the way they do. Identification choice was defined using an adult-based identity typology (Brunsma & Rockquemore, 2001): (a) consistently monoracial (singular), (b) consistently multiracial (border), or (c) inconsistent (protean). Three sub-groups of multiracial adolescents were analyzed separately, based on their self-reported racial parentage: non-Blacks, Black/non-American Indians, and Black/American Indians. Using an identity-focused cultural ecological model (Spencer, 2006), adolescents’ perceptions of their risks and protective factors (sociodemographics), as well as their beliefs about the oppression of non-Black minorities in the United States, were investigated in terms of how well (and in what combination) they predicted self-identification choice, both across race question formats and over time.

Findings suggested that there were different personal and contextual factors implicated in self-identification choice for each sub-group of adolescents. For non-Blacks, generational proximity to racial mixture, the percentage of Blacks in one’s neighborhood, and attitudes about racial oppression in the United States were strong predictors of racial self-identification choice. Among Black/non-American Indians, these characteristics were joined by self-perceived skin tone, academic achievement level, and age in their predictive effects. Among Black/American Indians, age, self-perceived skin tone, and attitudes about racial oppression exhibited strong main effects. There was an additional interaction effect found within this group between neighborhood diversity, skin tone, and the perception of the oppression of non- black minorities in the U.S.

This work suggests that self-identification choice is linked to adolescents’ perceptions of their risks and protective factors as well as their attitudes regarding the racial climate of the United States. Providing additional nuance to the literature are the differences found across racial parentage groups. By engaging a phenomenologically focused cultural ecological framework, both self-appraisal and reactive coping processes are revealed as central to racial identity development for this understudied population. Representing a mere slice of a broader research agenda, this project contributes a unique and important perspective to the emergent body of research on the rapidly growing population of multiracial Americans.

Table of Contents

• List of Tables viii
• List of Figures x
• Chapters
  • I. Introduction
    • Racial self-identification
    • Complications of race research
    • Race versus ethnicity
    • Methodological qualifications of the present study
  • II. Literature review
    • The United States multiracial population
    • Multiracial identity research
    • Methodology: How multiracial individuals racially self-identify
    • Process: Why multiracial individuals racially self-identify the way they do
    • Identity Typology
    • Factors that influence racial self-identification choice
    • The special case of Black/American Indians
    • Symbolic ethnicity 82
    • Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory
    • The Present Study
      • Component 1: Net vulnerability level
      • Component 2/3: Primary reactive coping processes
      • Component 3: Reactive coping response
    • Strengths of the present study
  • III. Method
    • Study background
    • Procedure
    • Sample
  • IV. Results
    • Preliminary Analyses
    • Research questions and hypothesis testing
  • V. Discussion
    • Overview of findings
    • Population breakdowns
    • Incidence and proportion of identity types
    • Predictive effects of independent variables
      • Component 1: Net vulnerability variables
      • Component 2/3: Primary reactive coping process variable
    • Limitations of the study
    • Implications for future research
    • Conclusion
• References

List of Tables

1. Net vulnerability sample characteristics: Age, gender, academic achievement, and city
2. Net vulnerability sample characteristics: Generational proximity to racial mixture
3. Net vulnerability sample characteristics: Skin tone
4. Net vulnerability sample characteristics: Neighborhood diversity
5. Net vulnerability sample characteristics: Racial combination group
6. Rotated factor pattern for entire sample
7. Oppression perception mean scores
8. Multiracial populations by question format
9. Incidence and proportion of identity types across all datasets and racial combinations
10. Year 1 log odds estimates of identity types for non-Blacks: Format variability
11. Year 2 log odds estimates of identity types for non-Blacks: Format variability
12. Year 1 log odds estimates of identity types for Black/non-American Indians: Format variability
13. Year 2 log odds estimates of identity types for Black/non-American Indians: Format variability
14. Year 1 log odds estimates of identity types for Black/American Indians: Format variability
15. Year 2 log odds estimates of identity types for Black/American Indians: Format variability
16. Log odds estimates of identity types for non-Blacks: Temporal variability
17. Log odds estimates of identity types for Black/non-American Indians: Temporal variability
18. Log odds estimates of identity types for Black/American Indians: Temporal variability
19. Summary of findings for non-Blacks across variability types
20. Summary of findings for Black/non-American Indians across variability types
21. Summary of findings for Black/American Indians across variability types

List of Figures

1. Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory
2. Engaged components of PVEST

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