“But, like, they don’t believe me”: External Messages and the Racial Identities of Multiracial Children

• In Event: Examining how Socialization and Discrimination Impact Multiracial Identity Across Development: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

Abstract

While research on Multiracial identity has been steadily increasing, research that does explore Multiracial identity still rarely includes pre-adolescent youth. However, 4- to 5-year-olds can label themselves as part of a racial group (Stevenson & Stewart, 1958), and 7- to 10-year-olds can ascribe meaning to that membership (Rogers et al., 2012). The present analysis uses interview data to explore how Multiracial youth describe their racial identities during middle childhood. Specifically, a developmental trend was identified: over time children made more references to messages they received from others. The content of these messages and their association with changes in children’s racial identity over time is the focus of this paper.

Data were drawn from a larger longitudinal study on children’s self-perceptions (see Rogers & Meltzoff, 2017). This analysis included the 41 self-identified Multiracial children (T1 Mage = 9.70 years, 71% girls) who participated in both waves of semi-structured interviews, which were conducted two years apart. The analysis focused on a subset of these children who describe messages they receive from others about their racial identity (N=27). Interviews were coded for messages about the child’s racial identity, with a focus on messages the child received from external sources. Codes captured the relationship of the external source to the child (e.g., family, peer, general other), their racial ingroup status relative to the child, and the type of external message (invalidation, racism/discrimination, affirmation).

Qualitative analyses reveal that in their first interviews, children primarily describe their racial membership in their own words, but this personal voice fades over time as messages from others, or “external messages,” about the child’s racial identity are more frequently mentioned. This shift to external messages is primarily driven by identity-invalidating messages, which increased fourfold from Time 1 to Time 2. Moreover, messages from others frequently illustrated themes of identity invalidation through exclusion of the child from racial groups with which they identify or inclusion of the child in racial groups with which they do not (e.g., Black/White Multiracial child being told that they are “Mexican”), reflecting the broader Multiracial literature pointing to the commonality of these experiences.

These invalidating messages were meaningfully related to children’s racial identities—by Time 2, these messages were mentioned more often by children whose racial identities did not change over the study period (N=13, M=1.46)) compared to those whose racial identities did change (N=14, M=.57), though this difference was only marginally significant, t(16.75)=1.81, p=.088. The most distinct difference lay in the source of such messages, with children whose identities did not change over time mentioning messages from general others (e.g., “they,” “people”) significantly more often (M=2.15) than children with more fluid identities (M=.71), t(16.94)=2.73, p=.014. In contrast, those whose identities did change reported messages from peers significantly more often (M=1.00) than children with consistent identities (M=.38), t(22.40)=-2.44, p=.023.

The present study offers novel data on the understudied identities of Multiracial children, and in particular the prevalence and role of messages that Multiracial children receive about the legitimacy of their racial identity.

Authors

• Courtney Meiling Jones, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author

• Leoandra Onnie Rogers, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jason Schwartz, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elisa Rapadas, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author