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The Influence of Ethnic-Racial Identity Developmental Processes on Adolescents’ Bicultural Competence Development

Fri, April 9, 4:20 to 5:50pm EDT (4:20 to 5:50pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

In the last decades, researchers have advanced scientific knowledge of the antecedents and consequents of ethnic-racial identity (ERI) development (see Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014, for an integrated conceptualization). This scholarship has provided tools to understand and study ERI development as a normative process that involves searching (i.e., exploration) and gaining clarity (i.e., resolution) relative to the meaning of one’s ethnicity and race. For ethnic and racial minority adolescents, ERI development should theoretically promote bicultural competence, or the ability to manage bicultural demands (LaFromboise et al., 1993; Garcia et al., 1996; Phinney & Alipuria, 2006). This hypothesis, however, has not been examined empirically. That is, the implications of ERI exploration and resolution for the development of bicultural competencies are unknown. This gap is problematic because immigrant and ethnic-racial minority adolescents are tasked with developing identities and competencies to successfully manage demands associated with their ethnic-racial or heritage group memberships (e.g., Mexican) and their memberships within the host society (e.g., American; Knight, Safa, & White, 2018; Safa et al., 2018).
Though the theoretical foundation is strong (Garcia et al., 1996; Phinney & Alipuria, 2006), there is only indirect extant empirical evidence for the association between ERI and bicultural competence. For instance, adolescents who explore their ERI might also engage in host identity processes (Gartner et al., 2014) and explore the meaning of one group membership in relation to the other. Further, adolescents who successfully internalize and integrate cultural domains (e.g., identities, behaviors) associated with both groups are more likely to develop bicultural competence (Benet-Martinez & Haritato, 2005; LaFromboise et al., 1993). These studies, however, relied on cross-sectional designs and did not directly assess associations among ERI developmental processes and affective, behavioral, and cognitive components of bicultural competence (i.e., bicultural facility, comfort, and advantage; Safa et al., 2019). These gaps substantially limit the scientific knowledge of the mechanisms via which adolescents develop bicultural competence, a normative developmental task for minority adolescents.
We examined a developmental model of ERI and bicultural competence, such that ERI exploration would promote bicultural competence via intermediate increases in ERI resolution (see Table 1 for scale descriptions). This mediational mechanism was tested prospectively (from x̅age = 12.80 to 15.84 to 17.38 years) in a sample of 749 U.S. Mexican-origin adolescents (48.9% female; 30% Mexico-born). ERI exploration and resolution were positively associated with behavioral, affective, and cognitive components of bicultural competence (i.e., facility, comfort, advantage; Table 1). Mediation analyses revealed that adolescents’ 7th grade ERI exploration promoted bicultural competence five years later (12th grade) via increases in 10th grade ERI resolution ((ab = .016, SE = .006, 95% CI [.005, .03]); Figure 1). Satorra-Bentler scaled chi-squared difference tests indicated that paths did not differ by adolescent nativity, Δχ2 (3) = 1.384, p = .709 or gender, Δχ2 (3) = 2.857, p = .414. Findings will be discussed relative to developmental models of ERI and biculturalism (Garcia et al., 1996; Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014) and relative to expanding the range of cultural competencies that are influenced by ERI development.

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