Intervening in cultural development: The case of ethnic-racial identity

Autonomy and identity: the role of two developmental tasks on adolescent's wellbeing

Developmental tasks theory suggests that the wellbeing of adolescents can be better understood by considering their developmental tasks, rather than just viewing it as a specific age. This concept has significantly influenced contemporary studies on the transition to adulthood. Study explains that psychosocial developmental tasks involve shifts in an individual's psychological state and social relationships, potentially disrupting their previous equilibrium. Authors stress the importance of forming personal identity and fostering a healthy sense of independence, especially concerning identity and autonomy tasks, as crucial elements for adolescent wellbeing analysis. In line with this, the study focuses on the concurrent and predictive relationship between identity process of commitment, emotional autonomy, and psychological wellbeing among adolescents. Four hundred fifty-four (454) participants with an age ranged from 15 to 19 years (m = 17.96) completed surveys measuring emotional autonomy, identity commitment, and psychological wellbeing. The findings revealed that both emotional autonomy and identity commitment predicted psychological wellbeing, but in different ways. The study revealed that emotional autonomy is inversely associated with psychological wellbeing in middle and late adolescents, indicating that their ability to establish independence from their parents or relinquish unrealistic parental expectations may be linked to a decline in their mental health. The results also indicated that identity commitment is moderately and positively related to psychological wellbeing, suggesting that when adolescents have a clear sense of their identity, they may experience greater wellbeing. This finding underscores the importance of encouraging adolescents to explore their values, interests, and goals, as well as providing them with support and guidance throughout the process. Additionally, the findings of the study revealed that emotional autonomy has a negative influence on psychological wellbeing when identity commitment is low or average. Specifically, when individuals have a low level of identity commitment, emotional autonomy significantly predicts lower psychological wellbeing. Similarly, when identity commitment is at an average level, emotional autonomy also has a detrimental effect on psychological wellbeing. Lastly, the study revealed that when individuals have a high level of identity commitment, emotional autonomy does not have a significant impact on psychological wellbeing. In simpler terms, when individuals possess a strong sense of commitment to their identity, their level of emotional autonomy does not play a significant role in influencing their psychological wellbeing.

Targeting ethnic-racial identity development and academic engagement in tandem through curriculum

Schools play an integral role in adolescents' learning and understanding of their ethnic-racial identity (ERI); however, the extant research offers a limited understanding of how specific educator practices can inform adolescents' ERI development, and in turn, their academic adjustment. Accordingly, the present study utilized 30 interviews with Latinx, White, Asian American, and Multiracial eighth grade students (N = 16; Mage = 13.25 years, SD = 0.45; 75% girls, 25% boys) and their English teacher to illustrate the processes by which an ERI-focused unit informed students' ERI developmental processes and their academic engagement (i.e., behavioral, cognitive, and emotional). Results from iterative causation coding indicated that (a) the unit promoted ERI development by facilitating conversations with family, offering dedicated time for ERI exploration, and facilitating personal and literary ERI exploration in tandem; (b) the unit's focus on ERI development encouraged students' emotional, cognitive, and behavioral academic engagement; and (c) the unit also encouraged students' emotional, cognitive, and behavioral academic engagement by leveraging book selections centering ethnoracially minoritized youth, critical consciousness raising, and class community building. Our findings offer implications for future research and school-based efforts looking to positively support adolescents' ERI development. Our findings also provide insights regarding the role of the predominately White school context in students' experiences with the unit, namely, the role of the context in some students' occasional disengagement with the material.

Teachers' Implementation of the Identity Project Is Associated With Increases in U.S. High School Students' Ethnic-Racial Identity Exploration

Ethnic-racial identity formation has significant consequences for positive youth development. Existing findings support the efficacy of the Identity Project, a school-based ethnic-racial identity intervention, when delivered by researchers; however, effectiveness of the program when delivered by teachers is unknown. This study examined changes in adolescents' (N = 180; 42.2% male, 50.6% female, 6.7% another gender identity; Mage = 14.11, SD = 0.33; 38.3% Latinx, 33.9% White, 15.0% Black, 9.4% Asian American, 3.3% another ethnoracial background) ethnic-racial identity exploration as a function of their teachers' implementation of the Identity Project. Findings indicated that ethnic-racial identity exploration significantly increased from pretest to posttest, and this did not vary based on familial ethnic-racial socialization, student-teacher ethnoracial match/mismatch, gender, immigrant status, or ethnoracial background. This study provides preliminary evidence that U.S. educators can be trained to efficaciously implement the Identity Project with high school students and, furthermore, that this approach to program dissemination may not only facilitate scale-up but also result in greater gains for adolescents relative to research-led implementations.

The Role of Ethnic-Racial Identity and Self-Esteem in Intergroup Contact Attitudes

Adolescents' ethnic-racial identity (ERI) exploration, resolution, and affirmation inform their approach and avoidance attitudes toward intergroup contact, but the potential mechanisms through which this occurs have been underexplored. Given the evidence that adolescents with higher ERI exploration, resolution, and affirmation also report higher self-esteem, and self-esteem is theorized to facilitate openness to intergroup contact, the current study explored the role of self-esteem as a mediator of the relation between adolescents' ERI and their intergroup contact attitudes. Participants were 4606 adolescents (Mage = 16.35, SD = 1.16; 37.5% White, 27.1% Black, 20.7% Latinx, 11.7% Asian American, 3% Native American) from the U.S. Southwest and Midwest. The three waves of data were collected between March 2017 and March 2018. Results from longitudinal multigroup path models indicated that across all ethnic-racial groups there were positive direct relations between Wave 1 (W1) ERI resolution and W2 self-esteem (7 months later). In turn, W2 self-esteem was positively related to W3 approach attitudes (12 months later) and negatively related to W3 avoidance attitudes. The relations between ERI resolution and both approach and avoidance attitudes were fully mediated by self-esteem across all ethnic-racial groups. Notably the baseline values (W1) of all mediation and outcome variables (W2, W3) were included, suggesting that ERI resolution at baseline predicted increases in self-esteem, which predicted subsequent increases in approach attitudes and decreases in avoidance attitudes. ERI exploration and affirmation were not significant predictors of later self-esteem or contact attitudes. These findings suggest that of the three dimensions of ERI examined, resolution is the primary driver of the increases in self-esteem that inform adolescents' attitudes towards interaction with ethnic-racial outgroup members.

Exploring the Moderating Role of Ethnic Identity in the Relation Between Peer Stress and Life Satisfaction among Adolescents

Objective

Ethnic identity is a crucial aspect of identity development during adolescence. This study aimed to examine the potential protective effect of ethnic identity in the relation between peer stress and global life satisfaction among adolescents.

Method

Data were collected via self-report measures from 417 adolescents (ages 14 to 18, 63.0% girls; 32.6% African American, 32.1% European American, 15.0% Asian American, 10.5% Hispanic or Latinx, 6.6% Biracial or Multiracial, and 0.7% Other) at one public, urban high school.

Results

The first model tested ethnic identity as the single moderator in the entire sample, and the moderation effect was not significant. The second model added ethnicity (African American vs. European American) as another moderator, and moderation effects were significant for both moderators. Furthermore, the negative effect of peer stress on life satisfaction was stronger for African American adolescents than European American counterparts. For both racial groups, the negative effect of peer stress on life satisfaction decreased as ethnic identity increased. The third model tested a three-way interaction across peer stress, ethnicity (African American vs. European American), and ethnic identity, which was not significant.

Conclusions

The results supported the buffering effect of ethnic identity in the context of peer stress for both African American and European American adolescents, and such effect appears to be more important for protecting African American adolescents' life satisfaction, though these two moderators appear to work independently, rather than interact with each other and the peer stressor. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Examining Multiracial Pride, Identity-based Challenges, and Discrimination: An Exploratory Investigation among Biracial Emerging Adults

This study investigated the main and interactive effects of identity-based challenges, discrimination, and Multiracial pride on psychological distress in Biracial emerging adults. Additionally, we examined whether these associations may differ by Biracial sub-group (e.g., Black-White, Asian-White, Latinx-White, and minority-minority) given their unique racial experiences. Participants were 326 Biracial emerging adults (Mage = 19.57 years old; 75.2% female) recruited from three public universities in the United States for an online survey. For all Biracial groups, identity-based challenges were associated with greater psychological distress. After testing a series of competing multi-group regression models, results indicated that the relations between distress and our predictors: identity-based challenges, discrimination, and Multiracial pride do indeed differ across Biracial sub-group. The most apparent and unique differences were displayed by the Black-White Biracial sub-group. These findings highlight identity-based challenges as a unique risk in the Biracial population and suggest that a principled comparison between Biracial sub-groups is necessary to tease apart group-specific associations between these constructs and psychological distress.

Latinx Adolescents' Assets, Risks, and Developmental Pathways: A Decade in Review and Looking Ahead

I selectively review the last decade of theory and research on Latinx adolescents and emerging adults' development. After briefly reviewing the changing demographics of US Latinx families, I address: (1) asset-based theories of Latinx youth's development; (2) the literature on the educational pathways of US Latinx youth; (3) how close relationships, ethnic/racial (ERI) identity, and family, school, and community context promote or constrain Latinx youth's educational and positive development and provide examples of successful interventions to promote ERI and academic adjustment. I conclude with suggestions for scholarship in the next decade, including applying intersectional, interdisciplinary, biopsychosocial, and international lenses to studying Latinx youth, researching father involvement, and addressing between- and within-country of origin variations in Latinx youth's education and development.

Racial Awareness and Bias Begin Early: Developmental Entry Points, Challenges, and a Call to Action

Overt expressions of racial intolerance have surged precipitously. The dramatic uptick in hate crimes and hate speech is not lost on young children. But how, and how early, do children become aware of racial bias? And when do their own views of themselves and others become infused with racial bias? This article opens with a brief overview of the existing experimental evidence documenting developmental entry points of racial bias in infants and young children and how it unfolds. The article then goes on to identify gaps in the extant research and outlines three steps to narrow them. By bringing together what we know and what remains unknown, the goal is to provide a springboard, motivating a more comprehensive psychological-science framework that illuminates early steps in the acquisition of racial bias. If we are to interrupt race bias at its inception and diminish its effects, then we must build strong cross-disciplinary bridges that span the psychological and related social sciences to shed light on the pressing issues facing our nation's young children and their families.

Coping with Discrimination from Peers and Adults: Implications for Adolescents' School Belonging

School belonging is a key indicator of students' academic well-being that is threatened by adults' and peers' transgressions of discrimination. Moreover, the hierarchical power structure at school enables adults and peers to enact ethnic-racial discrimination differently, which is also more or less salient among Black, Asian American, and Latinx youth. Therefore, this study aimed to disentangle the links between adult and peer-perpetrated racial discrimination at school, five distinct coping strategies, and school belonging across ethnic-racial groups. Participants were 1686 students in grades 9-12. These results indicated that adolescents who reported peer discrimination also reported greater proactive and aggressive coping. Black youth who reported more adult discrimination also reported more proactive coping, whereas Asian and Latinx youth who reported more peer discrimination reported more proactive coping. Peer discrimination was indirectly associated with greater school belonging via proactive coping, whereas adult discrimination was directly and negatively related to belonging. These findings suggest that adolescents may be selecting to proactively cope when faced with the discrimination source they most often navigate.

Culture and stress biology in immigrant youth from the prenatal period to adolescence: A systematic review

Immigration patterns over the last two decades have changed the demographic composition of the United States; children are growing up in an increasingly multicultural environment. Immigrant youth may face culture-related stressors and leverage culture-related strengths across development that may influence their mental and physical health. Responses to early life stressors may differ across children at the level of stress biology, which can affect how they handle cultural challenges. However, there is limited research on culture and stress biology, which may be a mediator or moderator of culture's effects on immigrant youth. The aim of the present article is to systematically review research that examines the roles of both culture and stress biology from the prenatal period to adolescence in immigrant youth. Specifically, we review articles that examine how stress-sensitive biological systems (hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis and the autonomic nervous system) and culture-related constructs have been modeled together in immigrant youth. Based on these findings, we note remaining questions and recommendations for future research in integrating measures of cultural processes and stress biology in children.

Cultural development and psychopathology

Culture plays a pivotal role in adaptive and maladaptive development. However, culture remains disconnected from theory, research, training, assessment, and interventions in developmental psychopathology, limiting our understanding of the genesis and epigenesis of mental health. Cultural development and psychopathology research can help overcome this limitation by focusing on the elucidation of cultural risk, protective, and promotive factors, at the individual and social levels, that initiate, derail, or maintain trajectories of normal and abnormal behavior. The goal of this Special Issue is to showcase research on the association between culture, development, and psychopathology that investigates equifinality and multifinality in cultural development, the interplay between culture and biology, cultural assessment and interventions, and cultural differences and similarities.

Family ethnic socialization predicts better academic outcomes via proactive coping with discrimination and increased self-efficacy

As the U.S. Latino youth population grows, understanding how family and individual resources may promote Latino adolescents' academic outcomes is important. The current investigation examined whether family ethnic socialization predicted adolescents' use of proactive strategies for coping with ethnic-racial discrimination and examined a potential pathway through which these contextual and individual resources may relate to educational outcomes. Drawing on data from a sample of Latino adolescents (n = 321; Mage = 15.31 years, SD = .76; 49.5% female), results of a cross-sectional structural equation model showed a double mediation of the relation between family ethnic socialization and GPA by proactive coping strategies and self-efficacy. Alternate models, limitations of the current investigation, and implications for future research are discussed.