Associations Among Native American Adolescents' Biculturalism, Ethnic Racial Identity, and Self-Esteem

• In Event: 2-125 - Developmental and Contextual Approaches to the Study of Ethnic-Racial Minority and Migrant Adolescents’ Dual-Cultural Adaptation

Integrative Statement

Literature on ethnic-racial identity suggests a positive association between ethnic-racial identity and psychological wellbeing. For example, Umaña-Taylor, Diversi, & Fine (2002) found that among Latino adolescents, there was generally a positive association between degree of ethnic identification and self-esteem. Many underrepresented minorities not only identify with their ethnic-racial identity but also identify as bicultural – identifying with two cultures: one’s heritage culture and the mainstream culture (Schwartz, Unger, Zamboanga, & Szapocznik, 2010). Although biculturalism is a process through which many underrepresented minorities in the United States navigate their social world, mixed evidence exists regarding how biculturalism positively or negatively influences psychological wellbeing. On one hand, scholars argue becoming bicultural can cause less affiliation with one’s primary ethnic-racial identity in order to become affiliated with one’s secondary ethnic-racial identity. On the other hand, scholars argue our capacity for identity affiliation is not finite. Biculturals can maintain their primary ethnic-racial identity while also cultivating their secondary identity. This study addresses this debate by exploring whether a) ethnic identity is associated with psychological wellbeing, and b) whether biculturalism (measured by the Living in Two Worlds Survey; LaFromboise, 1999) is associated with ethnic-racial identity (measured by the multigroup ethnic identity measure and the multidimensional inventory of Black identity‐Teen; Phinney, 1992; Sellers, 1997) and with psychological wellbeing (measured by the Rosenberg self-esteem scale; Rosenberg 1965).
Notably, this study pays special attention to a population largely understudied in the literature on ethnic-racial identity and biculturalism: The Native American population. This study samples 344 Native adolescents (47% female, Mage = 16.02 years), enrolled in a Native American reservation high school in the northern United States. The reservation, home to approximately 15,000 tribal members, has been characterized as remote and impoverished: 40% of families live below the poverty line and 69% of individuals eligible to work are unemployed. Drawing from literature theorizing biculturalism not always develops at the expense of one’s ethnic-racial identity (LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993), this study hypothesizes biculturalism will serve as a mediator through which ethnic-racial identity influences psychological wellbeing. In order to more accurately impute relations among our latent variables (biculturalism, ethnic identity, racial identity, and self-esteem) we employed structural equation modeling and regression analyses to examine this study’s hypotheses. Results show biculturalism was positively associated with self-esteem (b = 0.61, p < .0001), ethnic identity (b = 0.73, p < .0001), and two of the three components of racial identity: public regard (b = 0.43, p < .001) and centrality (b = 0.70, p <.0001). In addition, biculturalism almost fully mediated the relation between ethnic identity and self-esteem. Results support the idea that biculturalism can have a positive influence on psychological well-being and does not necessarily exist at the cost of losing affiliation with one’s primary ethnic-racial identity. It is important to note that not only do the study results suggest positive associations among biculturalism, ethnic-racial identity, and self-esteem, but also provide insight on the bicultural experience of a sample of Native American reservation adolescents, for which there exists little empirical literature.

Authors

• Teresa LaFromboise, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nidia Ruedas-Gracia, Stanford University
  Presenting Author