Biracial Youths’ Subjective Ingroup-Outgroup Categorization: Which Friends do Biracial Adolescents Consider to be Same-/Cross-ethnic?

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Youth who identify as Biracial (i.e., youth of two racial/ethnic backgrounds) are one of the fastest growing groups in the United States, increasing in size by over 33% from 2000 to 2010 (U.S. Census, 2012). Although the number of youth who identify as Biracial continues to grow, there is still a dearth of research on their experiences in the peer relations literature, particularly in research examining same-/cross-ethnic friendships. Given Biracial youth’s fluidity in racial/ethnic identification (Hitlin et al., 2006), diverse friendship networks (Quillian & Redd, 2009), and unique social positioning as bridges between monoracial peers (Echols & Graham, 2018), it is important to consider who Biracial youth consider to be members of their racial ingroup(s)/outgroup(s). As such, our first aim is to examine who Biracial adolescents are befriending, and our second aim is to describe who Biracial youth are categorizing as members of their racial/ethnic ingroup or outgroup.

Method. Participants for the current study included Latino-White (N = 168), African American-White (N = 117), and East/Southeast Asian-White (N = 94) Biracial youth who were drawn from a large, longitudinal study of adolescent development in 26 ethnically diverse schools in northern and southern California. Students nominated their “good friends” in the sixth grade (unlimited nominations) and indicated if each friend was from the same ethnic group as them. Outgoing nominations to each peer were matched to that peer’s own survey data. These data were used to identify those students’ self-reported race/ethnicity in order to examine patterns in how biracial students categorize friends as either same- or cross-ethnic.

Results. Youth from each of the three Biracial groups appeared to conform to the principle of homophily in that they mostly befriend youth who share at least one of their racial/ethnic backgrounds (e.g., Latino-White adolescents were mostly nominating Latino, White, and Biracial friends). Latino-White youth classified monoracial Latino friends as same-ethnic (50.4%) at the same rate that they classified them as cross-ethnic (49.6%), while they more consistently categorized monoracial White peers as cross-ethnic (60.2%) as opposed to same-ethnic (39.8%). East/Southeast Asian-White adolescents also tend to categorize monoracial East/Southeast Asian friends as same-ethnic (56.4%) at similar rates as cross-ethnic (43.5%), while very consistently classifying monoracial White friends as cross-ethnic (80.8%). African American-White youth classified monoracial Black peers as same-ethnic (77.2%) more frequently than monoracial White peers (14.0%). Across all three Biracial groups, youth classified Biracial/Multiethnic friends as cross-ethnic (58.0%–74.2%) more consistently than same-ethnic (25.8%–42.0%).

Discussion. Findings from the study shed light on the friendship networks of Biracial adolescents in middle school, as well as who they are classifying as members of their racial/ethnic ingroup and outgroup. Future analyses will examine how subjective same- and cross-ethnic friendships may influence intergroup attitudes and racial/ethnic identification fluidity in Biracial youth. With the country becoming increasingly diverse (U.S. Census, 2018) and hate crimes between members of different racial/ethnic groups on the rise (Costello, 2017), understanding who Bi/multiracial youth consider to be ingroup and outgroup members has important implications for our understanding of race relations in the U.S.

Authors

• Jenna Felkey, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Sandra Graham, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author