Intersectional Identities: Exploring How the Meaning and Consequences of Social Class Vary among Children Color

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Children’s life experiences play out at the nexus of multiple intersecting social identities. For children of color, ascribed social positions, such as race/ethnicity and social class, are key factors shaping their developmental opportunities and challenges. In particular, growing evidence indicates that race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) intersect to shape child well-being in complex ways, meaning social class may not hold the equivalent meaning and operate similarly among children of color. Consequently, scholars have increasingly recognized the utility of employing the intersectionality framework to explore the nuanced ways in which interlocking social identities influence developmental contexts and outcomes. To inform future scholarship, this symposium interrogates developmental scientists’ application of intersectionality in the extant literature and showcases multiple approaches to using intersectionality to understand how and why children of color’s experiences, advantages, and adversities vary markedly across the socioeconomic continuum.

The first study reviews how intersectionality has been deployed in developmental research, identifies methodological strengths and limitations, and offers suggestions for best practices. Study 2 merges longitudinal data from two nationally-representative kindergarten cohorts to investigate how associations between family SES and academic development in elementary school differ among children of color from native-born and immigrant families. The final paper uses rich contextual data from a longitudinal sample to assess how poverty and poverty-related experiences shape perceptions of subjective social status among low-income adolescents of color, highlighting variations by race/ethnicity. Summary discussions will delineate key themes and notable implications for developmental science.

Sub Unit

• Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Chair

• Daphne A. Henry, University of Pittsburgh

Discussant

• Tiffany Yip, Fordham University

Individual Presentations

• The Current State of Intersectional Identity Research in Psychology: What we Know, Don't Know, and Where We Ought to go - Non-Presenting Author: Leoandra Onnie Rogers, Northwestern University; Non-Presenting Author: Ursula Moffitt, Wheaton College Massachusetts; Presenting Author: Negin Ghavami, Loyola Marymount University; Non-Presenting Author: Dalal Katsiaficas, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Disparate Impact: Using an Intersectional Lens to Explore How Race/Ethnicity and Family Socioeconomic Status Intersect to Shape Academic Development among Children of Color - Presenting Author: Daphne A. Henry, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Lorraine Reese Blatt, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Laura Betancur, Iowa State University; Non-Presenting Author: Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, University of Pittsburgh

• What Informs Perception? The Intersection of Poverty and Poverty-Related Experiences in Shaping Low-Income Youth’s Subjective Social Status - Presenting Author: Amanda L. Roy, University of Illinois at Chicago; Non-Presenting Author: Christine Pajunar Li-Grining, Loyola University Chicago