Thinking outside the box: Racial self-identification choice among mixed heritage adolescents

The purpose of this study was to explore how and why adolescents of mixed racial heritage racially self-identify the way they do. Identification choice was defined using an adult-based identity typology (Brunsma & Rockquemore, 2001): (a) consistently monoracial (singular), (b) consistently multiracial (border), or (c) inconsistent (protean). Three sub-groups of multiracial adolescents were analyzed separately, based on their self-reported racial parentage: non-Blacks, Black/non-American Indians, and Black/American Indians. Using an identity-focused cultural ecological model (Spencer, 2006), adolescents\u27 perceptions of their risks and protective factors (sociodemographics), as well as their beliefs about the oppression of non-Black minorities in the United States, were investigated in terms of how well (and in what combination) they predicted self-identification choice, both across race question formats and over time. Findings suggested that there were different personal and contextual factors implicated in self-identification choice for each sub-group of adolescents. For non-Blacks, generational proximity to racial mixture, the percentage of Blacks in one\u27s neighborhood, and attitudes about racial oppression in the United States were strong predictors of racial self-identification choice. Among Black/non-American Indians, these characteristics were joined by self-perceived skin tone, academic achievement level, and age in their predictive effects. Among Black/American Indians, age, self-perceived skin tone, and attitudes about racial oppression exhibited strong main effects. There was an additional interaction effect found within this group between neighborhood diversity, skin tone, and the perception of the oppression of non-black minorities in the U.S. This work suggests that self-identification choice is linked to adolescents\u27 perceptions of their risks and protective factors as well as their attitudes regarding the racial climate of the United States. Providing additional nuance to the literature are the differences found across racial parentage groups. By engaging a phenomenologically focused cultural ecological framework, both self-appraisal and reactive coping processes are revealed as central to racial identity development for this understudied population. Representing a mere slice of a broader research agenda, this project contributes a unique and important perspective to the emergent body of research on the rapidly growing population of multiracial Americans