{"id":11961,"date":"2011-02-06T04:07:33","date_gmt":"2011-02-06T04:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=11961"},"modified":"2011-02-06T04:08:16","modified_gmt":"2011-02-06T04:08:16","slug":"parent-and-child-influences-on-the-development-of-a-black-white-biracial-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=11961","title":{"rendered":"Parent and Child Influences on the Development of a Black-White Biracial Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/scholar.lib.vt.edu\/theses\/available\/etd-11162009-035955\/unrestricted\/Stone_DJ_D_2009.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Parent and Child Influences on the Development of a Black-White Biracial Identity<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University<br \/>\n2009-10-07<br \/>\n286 pages<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dana J. Stone Harris<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of\u00a0Doctor of Philosophy in Human Development<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In this qualitative study, the interactive process of exploring and developing shared, familial meanings about biracial identity development was investigated from the perspectives of both parents and children in Black-White multiracial families. Specifically, this study examined how monoracial parents and their biracial children describe the influence parents have on the biracial children\u2019s identity development process from the biracial individuals\u2019 youth into adulthood. Monoracial parents and their children were also invited to share how they negotiated the uniqueness of a biracial identity in both the parents\u2019 and the children\u2019s social arenas. Data were obtained through in-person, semi-structured interviews with 10 monoracial mothers and 11 of their adult (ages 18 to 40) biracial children. The data were analyzed using phenomenological methodology. The analysis of participants\u2019 experiences of biracial identity development revealed four major themes: that family interactions and relationships contribute to the creation of identity for biracial individuals, that mothers intentionally worked to create an open family environment for their biracial children to grow up in, that parents and children affect and are affected by interactions with American culture and society throughout their development, and finally that growing up biracial is a unique experience within each of aforementioned contexts. While there were many shared experiences among the families, each family had its own exceptional story of strength and adjustment to the biracial identity development process. Across cases, the overarching theme was one of togetherness and resiliency for the mothers and their adult children. Data from this study has important implications for research and practice among a number of human service professionals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TABLE OF CONTENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>TABLE OF CONTENTS<\/li>\n<li>LIST OF TABLES<\/li>\n<li>LIST OF FIGURES<\/li>\n<li>DEDICATION<\/li>\n<li>ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS<\/li>\n<li>CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION\n<ul>\n<li>BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE<\/li>\n<li>JUSTIFICATION: BLACK-WHITE INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES<\/li>\n<li>STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM<\/li>\n<li>PURPOSE STATEMENT<\/li>\n<li>CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM<\/li>\n<li>DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS<\/li>\n<li>RESEARCH QUESTIONS<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW\n<ul>\n<li>IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT<\/li>\n<li>RACIAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT<\/li>\n<li>BIRACIAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT<\/li>\n<li>RACIAL SOCIALIZATION: THE ROLE OF FAMILIES<\/li>\n<li>INTERRACIAL COUPLES: ATTITUDES AND EXPERIENCES<\/li>\n<li>INTERRACIAL PARENTS AND RACIAL SOCIALIZATION<\/li>\n<li>THE PRESENT STUDY<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY\n<ul>\n<li>PHENOMENOLOGICAL INQUIRY<\/li>\n<li>SAMPLE<\/li>\n<li>PROCEDURES<\/li>\n<li>MEASURES<\/li>\n<li>ROLE OF THE RESEARCHER<\/li>\n<li>DATA ANALYSIS<\/li>\n<li>TRUSTWORTHINESS<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS\n<ul>\n<li>INTRODUCTION OF THE PARTICIPANT FAMILIES\n<ul>\n<li>Participant Demographics: Mothers<\/li>\n<li>Participant Demographics: Biracial Adults<\/li>\n<li>Descriptions of Participant Families<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>MULTIGENERATIONAL FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS\n<ul>\n<li>Family Constellations and Parental Dating Practices<\/li>\n<li>Supportive and Close Parent-Child Relationships<\/li>\n<li>Supportive Siblings: Sharing the Biracial Experience<\/li>\n<li>Grandparents and Great-Grandparents<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>FAMILIAL INFLUENCES ON THE BIRACIAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT PROCESS\n<ul>\n<li>Raising Biracial Children: An Intentionally Unique Responsibility<\/li>\n<li>Racially Labeling Children<\/li>\n<li>Acknowledging Potential Challenges for Biracial Children<\/li>\n<li>Family pride: We are Comfortable and Proud to be an Interracial Family<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>NEGOTIATING OUR RACIAL IDENTITY WITH THE \u201cOUTSIDE\u201d WORLD\n<ul>\n<li>Friendships<\/li>\n<li>Neighborhoods and Local Communities<\/li>\n<li>Trying to Fit Me into a Box: Pressure to Choose Black or White<\/li>\n<li>Fighting Discrimination and Racism as a Family<\/li>\n<li>The Impact of Racially Historical Events<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>THE EXPERIENCE OF GROWING UP WITH A UNIQUE RACIAL HERITAGE\n<ul>\n<li>How I Describe My Racial Identity<\/li>\n<li>The Color of My Skin Matters<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe Biggest Issue I\u2019ve had is Hair\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Stuck in the Middle and \u201cThe Best of Both Worlds\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Resiliency: My Racial Identity Makes me a Stronger Person<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>SUMMARY OF FINDINGS<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS\n<ul>\n<li>OVERVIEW<\/li>\n<li>REFLEXIVITY AND PERSONAL PROCESS<\/li>\n<li>DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS\n<ul>\n<li>Mother\u2019s Perceptions of their Influence on Biracial Identity Development<\/li>\n<li>Biracial Children Describe the Influence of their Parents and Families<\/li>\n<li>Biracial Identity from Childhood into Adulthood<\/li>\n<li>Negotiating Biracial Identity in the Social Arenas of Mothers and Children<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>LIMITATIONS<\/li>\n<li>PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS\n<ul>\n<li>Mental Health Implications<\/li>\n<li>Treatment Suggestions<\/li>\n<li>Social and Political Implications<\/li>\n<li>Community<\/li>\n<li>Social Change<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH<\/li>\n<li>FINAL CONCLUSIONS<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>REFERENCES\n<ul>\n<li>APPENDIX A: ADVERTISEMENT FLYER<\/li>\n<li>APPENDIX B: RECRUITMENT EMAIL\/LETTER<\/li>\n<li>APPENDIX C: IRB APPROVAL LETTER VIRGINIA TECH<\/li>\n<li>APPENDIX D: IRB APPROVAL LETTER UNIVERSITY OF OREGON<\/li>\n<li>APPENDIX E: INFORMED CONSENT<\/li>\n<li>APPENDIX F: INTERVIEW GUIDES<\/li>\n<li>APPENDIX G: DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRES<\/li>\n<li>APPENDIX H: THEMES DRAFT 1<\/li>\n<li>APPENDIX I: THEMES DRAFT 6<\/li>\n<li>APPENDIX J: EMAIL LETTER FOR MEMBER CHECKS<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>LIST OF TABLES<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>TABLE 1 SUMMARY OF THEMES<\/li>\n<li>TABLE 2 MOTHER DEMOGRAPHICS<\/li>\n<li>TABLE 3 BIRACIAL ADULT DEMOGRAPHICS<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>LIST OF FIGURES<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>FIGURE 1 VINCENT FAMILY GENOGRAM<\/li>\n<li>FIGURE 2 NELSON FAMILY GENOGRAM<\/li>\n<li>FIGURE 3 SIMON FAMILY GENOGRAM<\/li>\n<li>FIGURE 4 EDWARD FAMILY GENOGRAM<\/li>\n<li>FIGURE 5 RULE FAMILY GENOGRAM<\/li>\n<li>FIGURE 6 COLLINS FAMILY GENOGRAM<\/li>\n<li>FIGURE 7 JACOBS FAMILY GENOGRAM<\/li>\n<li>FIGURE 8 OLSON FAMILY GENOGRAM<\/li>\n<li>FIGURE 9 MONROE FAMILY GENOGRAM<\/li>\n<li>FIGURE 10 BROOKS FAMILY GENOGRAM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Read the entire dissertation <a href=\"http:\/\/scholar.lib.vt.edu\/theses\/available\/etd-11162009-035955\/unrestricted\/Stone_DJ_D_2009.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Parent and Child Influences on the Development of a Black-White Biracial Identity Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 2009-10-07 286 pages Dana J. Stone Harris Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of\u00a0Doctor of Philosophy in Human Development In this qualitative [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[838,414,125,8,20],"tags":[5375,5373,5374],"class_list":["post-11961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dissertations","category-family","category-identitydevelopment","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-dana-j-stone","tag-dana-j-stone-harris","tag-virginia-polytechnic-institute-and-state-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}