The Associations Among Aspects of Ethnic-racial Identity Development and Peer Network Integration in Adolescence

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) development is essential during adolescence (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014). ERI is an asset for youth of color because it can protect against adverse effects of discrimination on adolescent psychological and academic adjustment (Yip et al., 2019). ERI development unfolds as a series of interrelated processes (Umaña-Taylor et al, 2014) in which adolescents explore what it means to be the member of their ethnic-racial group (ERI exploration), adolescents arrive at a sense of clarity of what it means to them to be a member of an ethnic-racial group (ERI resolution), and their positive affect towards their ethnic-racial group (ERI affirmation). ERI development occurs in the context of peer relationships, and research has begun to show that adolescents chose to befriend others with similar levels of ERI development and influence each other to become similar to each other on ERI (Santos et al, 2017; Rivas-Drake et al, 2017). ERI resolution has been linked to boosting self-confidence (Umaña-Taylor, 2016) and in perceived social support (Hoffman et al., 2019). These associations suggest a possibility that the dimensions of ERI development will be associated with peer network integration (Kornienko et al., 2015). Thus, we examined how aspects of ERI development were associated with friendship network prestige and centrality, which captures distinct aspects of social integration. Additionally, we examined whether these associations differed between earlier and middle adolescence.
The sample consisted of 279 6th and 435 9th graders from 4 public schools in a large metropolitan area in the South-Western U.S. A majority of the participants were Hispanic (57%), 31% were Caucasian, less than 1% were Pacific Islander, 8% were African American, 1% were Asian, 2% were American Indian, and less than 1% reported “other” ethnicity. Participants completed Ethnic Identity Scale (Douglass & Umaña-Taylor, 2015) and provided nominations of up to 10 friends of either gender from their grade. Nominations data were used to compute Proximity Prestige, which measures network prestige based on incoming nominations, and Bonacich Centrality, which measures network centrality outgoing nominations.
Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations between ERI exploration, resolution, and affirmation and the two measures of social integration. Results showed that ERI resolution is significantly related to friendship network centrality but not with prestige. Interactions with grade showed no differences in the associations between ERI dimensions and peer network integration between 6th and 9th graders.
Our results show that adolescents, who have developed a greater certainty about the meaning of their ethnic-racial group membership, are more strongly integrated in their peer networks. This observation adds to a growing body of research on associations between ERI development and peer relationships.

Group Authors

Elana M. Norman, Olga Kornienko, Marissa Davila, & Thao Ha

Author

• Elana Norman, George Mason University
  Presenting Author