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The Development of Ethnic/Racial Self-Labeling: Individual Differences in Context

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Abstract

Ethnic/racial self-labeling represents one’s knowledge of and preference for ethnic/racial group membership, which is related to, but distinguishable from, ethnic/racial identity. This study examined the development of ethnic/racial self-labeling over time by including the concept of elaboration among a diverse sample of 297 adolescents (Time 1 mean age 14.75, 67% female, 37.4% Asian or Asian American, 10.4% Black, African American, or West Indian, 23.2% Hispanic or Latinx, 24.2% White, 4.4% other). Growth mixture modeling revealed two distinct patterns—low and high self-labeling elaboration from freshman to sophomore year of high school. Based on logistic regression analyses, the level of self-labeling elaboration was generally low among the adolescents who were foreign-born, reported low levels of ethnic/racial identity exploration, or attended highly diverse schools. We also found a person-by-context interaction where the impact of school diversity varied for foreign-born and native-born adolescents (b = 12.81, SE = 6.30, p < 0.05) and by the level of ethnic/racial identity commitment (b = 14.32, SE = 6.65, p < 0.05). These findings suggest varying patterns in ethnic/racial self-labeling elaboration among adolescents from diverse backgrounds and their linkage to individual and contextual factors.

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Authors’ Contributions

Y.C. reviewed the literature, conducted statistical analyses, and drafted the manuscript; S.B. conceived of the study, reviewed the literature, conducted initial statistical analyses, helped to draft the manuscript; Y.W. reviewed and helped to draft the manuscript; T.Y. designed and supervised the original data collection, helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This research was supported by a grant awarded to Tiffany Yip and J. Nicole Shelton of Princeton University from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1 R01 HD055436). The first author was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (1R21MD011388) awarded to Tiffany Yip.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Fordham University, 441 East Fordham Rd., Bronx, NY, 10458, USA

    Yuen Mi Cheon & Tiffany Yip

  2. OMNI Institute, 899 Logan Street, Suite 600, Denver, CO, 80203, USA

    Sara Douglass Bayless

  3. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Michigan State University, 552 West Circle Drive, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Yijie Wang

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  1. Yuen Mi Cheon
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Correspondence to Yuen Mi Cheon.

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Ethical Approval

The study procedures were approved by Fordham University Institutional Review Board. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants (parents) included in the study. Informal assent was obtained from adolescents.

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Cheon, Y.M., Bayless, S.D., Wang, Y. et al. The Development of Ethnic/Racial Self-Labeling: Individual Differences in Context. J Youth Adolescence 47, 2261–2278 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0843-4

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