Narratives of racism: Relations to bi-cultural identity development and psychological well-being

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic -Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Abstract

Identity development becomes a critical aspect of development around the time of adolescence and continues well into young adulthood. But for individuals from minority cultures, that search for identity is complicated by their dual identities, and research indicates that minority emerging adults tend to struggle in navigating between their two cultural identities. Yet, bi-cultural identity development is critical to the success and well-being of minority students (Syed, 2010). The development of identity, particularly an integrated bi-cultural identity that reflects both majority and minority cultures, can become disrupted by experiences of racism, and may alter healthy identity development by pitting the two cultures against each other. Research has demonstrated both psychological and physiological effects of racism (Crocker, 2007) including, but not limited to, increased stress and cortisol levels leading to higher rates of cardiovascular diseases in Black individuals (Wyatt et al., 2003). Research also shows that individuals who experience racism are at an increased risk for PTSD, depression, and suicidal ideations (Polanco-Roman et al., 2019). Given the climate in the United States today, understanding the effects of racism on bi-cultural identity development and mental health is a critical step in helping minority individuals to navigate between their two competing cultures.
This study examined the effects of racism on the bi-cultural identity development and psychological well-being of Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans between ages 18 and 25. Participants were asked to describe a time they experienced an act of racism using the following prompt: Describe in detail a personal experience of racism. Describe your feelings, emotions, thoughts, location, social context, who you were with, etc. Give as much detail as possible. As a follow up, participants were also asked to describe how they dealt/coped with the experience of racism they described. Participants further described a time in which stereotypical expectations were subjected onto them, and a time in which they experienced microaggression. Both of these narratives were followed up with questions related to coping. Participants also filled out the Coping with Discrimination Scale, the Bi-cultural Integration Scale, the Identity Distress Survey and the Ryff Psychological Well-being scale. Narratives will be examined for themes of racism, elaboration and meaning-making in relation to self development. We hypothesize that participants who experience more negative themes of racism, including racial violence or hate crimes, will display less integrated bi-cultural identity, greater identity distress, and lower psychological well-being, pointing to the overall negative effects of racism on minority individuals. We further hypothesize that more elaborate narratives and narratives with greater meaning making will be related to more integrated bi-cultural identity, better psychological health and less identity distress, indicating the importance of narrative processing in overcoming the negative effects of racism.
Statement on pre-registration – we are in the process of data collection, and are confident that we can collect and code all data in time for the conference in April.

Authors

• Widaad Zaman, University of Central Florida
  Non-Presenting Author

• Piper Schroeder, University of Central Florida
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tayana Rich, University of Central Florida
  Presenting Author