Racial Identity Development for Black Adolescents: Over Time and At School

This dissertation consists of two studies that explore the development of ethnic racial identity for Black adolescents during middle and high school. Both studies draw from a longitudinal school-based study of about 6,000 ethnically diverse early adolescents’ social and psychological adjustment in 26 schools that varied in ethnic diversity. The analytic sample for this dissertation consisted of only students that self-identified as Black/African American. In Study 1, I examined the developmental trajectory of growth in 3 parameters of ethnic racial identity—ethnic pride, ethnic exploration, and out group orientation—from 6th-12th grade. Piecewise latent growth curve models revealed that each aspect of ethnic racial identity followed a unique pattern of growth. While ethnic pride and out group orientation seemed to both grow in middle and high school, ethnic pride was relatively stable in middle school and then showed a pattern of growth in high school. Furthermore, both ethnic pride and ethnic exploration showed a significant drop at the start of high school. In Study 2, I focused in on ethnic pride to explore school ethnic context as a potential explanation for changes in ethnic pride over time, especially at the transition to high school. I considered a variety of aspects of the school ethnic context including actual ethnic representation of Black students, perceived representation, and change in representation. I also explored the impact of racial discrimination as a psychological aspect of the ethnic context. Results from latent growth curve models revealed that only perceived ethnic representation impacted ethnic pride. I found that perceptions of declining representation from middle school to high school predicted the drop in ethnic pride at the start of high school. Furthermore, perceiving more same ethnic peers in 9th grade predicted a faster recovery for ethnic pride during high school. Findings from this dissertation point to an important relationship between school ethnic context and ethnic racial identity