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The Development of Ethnic-Racial Identity Process and Its Relation to Civic Beliefs among Latinx and Black American Adolescents

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Abstract

Despite associations between ethnic-racial identity processes (i.e., exploration and resolution) and positive psychosocial outcomes among adolescents, limited empirical research investigates longitudinal associations between these processes and civic beliefs. To address this gap in the literature, this research explored whether changes in ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution predicted civic beliefs among adolescents. Participants included 400 Latinx (n = 121; 47.1% girls) and Black American (n = 279; 52.0% girls) adolescents in the 6th (n = 210), 7th (n = 113) and 8th Grades (n = 74). Neither initial levels nor changes in ethnic-racial identity exploration predicted civic beliefs across four time-points of the study, or across two years of middle school. Adolescents who demonstrated greater increases in ethnic-racial identity resolution across two years of middle school were likely to have greater civic beliefs by the end of the two years, as compared to adolescents who had smaller increases in resolution. These results suggest that adolescents who have an increasingly clear sense of their ethnic-racial selves may have greater access to cognitive and socioemotional resources that promote their development of beliefs on the need to advance the well-being of their communities.

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Authors’ Contributions

J.B. conceived of the study, performed statistical analysis, coordinated and drafted the manuscript; A.H. conceived of the study, performed statistical analysis, and helped to draft the manuscript; D.R.D. conceived of the study, participated in its design and data analytic approach, and helped to draft the manuscript; R.J.J. participated in its design and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This research was funded by internal resources.

Data Sharing and Declaration

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but areavailable from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, 210 South Bouquet Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA

    Josefina Bañales

  2. Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, 751 Poe Hall, Raleigh, NC, 27607, USA

    Adam J. Hoffman

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48103, USA

    Deborah Rivas-Drake

  4. Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, Chicago, IL, 60607, USA

    Robert J. Jagers

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  1. Josefina Bañales
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  2. Adam J. Hoffman
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  3. Deborah Rivas-Drake
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  4. Robert J. Jagers
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Josefina Bañales.

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All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of Michigan Health Science and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board (HUM00053461) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Prior to survey administration, passive parental consent procedures were implemented, and the names of students whose parents chose to opt out of the study were provided to teachers during survey administration so that they were not given a survey. Student assent was obtained prior to completing the survey.

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Bañales, J., Hoffman, A.J., Rivas-Drake, D. et al. The Development of Ethnic-Racial Identity Process and Its Relation to Civic Beliefs among Latinx and Black American Adolescents. J Youth Adolescence 49, 2495–2508 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01254-6

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