The Effects of Racial Identity on African American Youths\u27 Psychosocial Adjustment: A Conceptualization of the Literature and Meta-Analytic Review

There is a general assumption of the positive effect of racial identity on the psychosocial adjustment of African-American youth. Despite this assertion, research findings for racial identity are unclear. The disparate measures of racial identity were organized into a cohesive framework with eight categories. Using this conceptual framework, a meta-analytic review was conducted on the effects the components of racial identity on African-American adolescents\u27 psychosocial adjustment. There were 58 independent samples from 34 published journal articles and 14 unpublished papers (dissertations) including a total of 14,209 youth included in the study. Results of study highlight the importance of racial pride and suggest implications for multidimensional models and qualitative research on racial identity for future research