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Mismatches in Self-Reported and Meta-Perceived Ethnic Identification across the High School Years

  • Empirical Research
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Abstract

Ethnic identification (i.e., one’s self-reported ethnicity) is a social construction and therefore subject to misperceptions by others. When adolescents’ self-views and others’ perceptions are not aligned, adolescents may experience adjustment challenges. The present study examined mismatches between adolescents’ ethnic identification (i.e., self-reported ethnicity) and meta-perceptions (i.e., what ethnicity they believed their schoolmates presumed them to be), as well as longitudinal associations between mismatches and adjustment across the high school years. Participants (Mage = 14.5; 57% girls) were an ethnically diverse sample of 1151 low-income high school students who had participated in an earlier longitudinal study during middle school. Although ethnic identification was largely consistent across the high school years, many students (46%) experienced at least occasional mismatches between their self-reported ethnic identification and meta-perceptions, with students who ever identified as multiethnic experiencing more mismatches than their monoethnic counterparts. Experiencing a mismatch was associated with more depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and lower self-worth.

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Funding

This study was supported by grants from National Science Foundation (BCS0345967), John Randolf and Dora Haynes Foundation, and the UCLA Institute of American Cultures.

Author Contributions

A.N., A.B., and M.W. conceptualized the paper and worked on initial iterations of the study; A.N. ran analyses and wrote the full draft; K.N.G. provided input on analyses and feedback on drafts; S.G. provided substantive feedback on all drafts. All authors read and approved of the final version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Ecology, University of California, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Adrienne Nishina

  2. 852C Educational Sciences, University of Wisconsin, 1025 West Johnson Street, Madison, WI, 53706-1706, USA

    Amy Bellmore

  3. Willamette University, Smullin 254, 900 State Street, Salem, OR, 97301, USA

    Melissa R. Witkow

  4. Gervitz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA

    Karen Nylund-Gibson

  5. University of California, Moore Hall 2127, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1521, USA

    Sandra Graham

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  1. Adrienne Nishina
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  4. Karen Nylund-Gibson
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Correspondence to Adrienne Nishina.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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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 included in the study.

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Nishina, A., Bellmore, A., Witkow, M.R. et al. Mismatches in Self-Reported and Meta-Perceived Ethnic Identification across the High School Years. J Youth Adolescence 47, 51–63 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0726-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0726-0

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