Abstract
Latinx emerging adults explore and commit to their ethnic and American identities which may influence their psychological well-being. However, it may not be the act of exploring and committing to their ethnic and American identities that influence emerging adults’ psychological well-being; instead, it may be how they integrate both identities. To test this possibility, this study tested whether ethnic and American identity exploration and commitment were associated with psychological well-being by way of two bicultural identity integration processes (i.e., blendedness and harmony) among Latinx emerging adults. Data came from a year-long three-wave longitudinal study about stress and well-being among Latinx first-years (70% female; Mage = 18.20; SD = 0.51) with Wave 1 collected in Fall 2020, Wave 2 in Spring 2021, and Wave 3 in Fall 2021. Cross-sectional and longitudinal structural equation modeling suggest ethnic identity exploration and American identity commitment to be associated with psychological well-being by way of bicultural identity integration blendedness (i.e., perceived cognitive overlap between identities) and harmony (i.e., perceived affective conflict between identities). Results point to ethnic and American identity exploration and commitment being related with blendedness and harmony, which, in turn, were related with psychological well-being in the moment but not over time.
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Notes
Due to survey length considerations, a shortened version of the 17-item Bicultural Identity Integration Scale-Version 2 was used
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Acknowledgements
Preparation of this manuscript was supported by university funds provided to the first author. It was also supported by Grants K01AA028057 (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) and P2CHD042849 (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development).
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K.L.H. conceived the study, developed its design, conducted analyses, interpreted the data, and wrote up all parts of the manuscript; E.L.B. lead the data collection of this study, assisted with data analysis, and manuscript preparation; S.Y.K. assisted with manuscript preparation. All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
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Henriquez, K.L., Lorenzo-Blanco, E.I. & Kim, S.Y. The Association of Ethnic and American Identities with Psychological Well-Being among Latinx Emerging Adults: The Mediating Role of Bicultural Identity Integration. J. Youth Adolescence 52, 2131–2143 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01824-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01824-4