Poster #175 - Latent Transition Analyses: Black Adolescents' Racial Identity Development and Implications of Racial Discrimination

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Integrative Statement

Adolescence is marked by developmental and contextual changes that can present unique challenges for ethnic minorities. Increasingly, scholars highlight racial identity, or cognitions around the importance and meaning of one’s racial group (Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, Chavous, 1998), as an important social and personal identity for ethnic minority adolescents. However, there has been relatively less research attention on changes in racial identity across adolescence and on how race-related experiences (e.g., personal discrimination, intergroup interactions) may influence adolescents’ racial identity beliefs. The dearth of such research is surprising, given the popularity of developmental models of racial/ethnic identity positing linkages between group-related experiences and changes in-group identity beliefs (e.g., Cross, 1991; Phinney, 1989). Our study examined changes in African American adolescents’ racial identity beliefs from 7th to 12th grade; utilizing survey data from the Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context (N=1339; M=14.24). Racial identity beliefs assessed include youths’ reported importance of being African American (centrality), affective beliefs about being African American (regard), and racial ideological beliefs (e.g., assimilation, humanism, nationalism). Latent transition analyses revealed five statuses of racial identity, which were relatively stable over time. However, there was variability in change patterns in status membership over time. Findings indicated there was no one normative type of racial identity change, as youths’ identity profiles changed in different ways. Racial discrimination was significantly associated with transitions across grades 7 through 12 (χ2 = 38.86, df = 20, p =.007). The current study provides empirical support for earlier developmental models of racial identity. This study highlights that racial identity is multidimensional and change in identity beliefs vary as a function of the individual and experience. Rigorous research methodologies are imperative to disentangle the multifaceted and complexities of racial identity development and contextualization. Experiences that prompts adolescents to reevaluate their beliefs and attitudes around the meaning of their race can either motivate them to hold firmly to previous held beliefs or abandoned previously held beliefs. Race—albeit socially constructed—serves as a catalyst and socializing agent that impacts identity, daily experiences, and mental health for Black adolescents.

Authors

• Natasha C Johnson, University of Michigan
  Presenting Author

• Tabbye Chavous, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author

• Robert Sellers, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author