Inconsistency within Expressed and Observed Racial Identifications: Identity, Signaling, and Mental Health Status

• In Event: 205 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Paper Session. Race and Ethnicity in Everyday Encounters

Abstract

The present study extends previously published work on distress that arises from discrepancy between self and interviewer racial identifications (e.g., Campbell and Troyer 2007; Cheng and Powell 2011). Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we examine mental health consequences of inconsistency over time within expressed (self) and observed (interviewer) racial identifications among American Indians, and whether skin color moderates the consequences. Results indicate that American Indians with inconsistent expressed racial identifications experience no mental health disadvantage, whereas those inconsistently observed as American Indian report increases in depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and use of psychological counseling. Furthermore, light skin color amplifies the deleterious mental health consequences of observational inconsistency. We argue that some American Indians may experience poor mental health because they are ambiguously perceived by those around them. Consistent with identity theory, observed inconsistency is a marker for the stressful experiences associated with being not readily classifiable in a world fixated with tidy racial classifications.

Authors

• Whitney Nicole Laster, Vanderbilt University

• Tony N. Brown, Vanderbilt University