Targeting ethnic-racial identity development and academic engagement in tandem through curriculum.

Schools play an integral role in adolescents' learning and understanding of their ethnic-racial identity (ERI); however, the extant research offers a limited understanding of how specific educator practices can inform adolescents' ERI development, and in turn, their academic adjustment. Accordingly, the present study utilized 30 interviews with Latinx, White, Asian American, and Multiracial eighth grade students (N = 16; Mage = 13.25 years, SD = 0.45; 75% girls, 25% boys) and their English teacher to illustrate the processes by which an ERI-focused unit informed students' ERI developmental processes and their academic engagement (i.e., behavioral, cognitive, and emotional). Results from iterative causation coding indicated that (a) the unit promoted ERI development by facilitating conversations with family, offering dedicated time for ERI exploration, and facilitating personal and literary ERI exploration in tandem; (b) the unit's focus on ERI development encouraged students' emotional, cognitive, and behavioral academic engagement; and (c) the unit also encouraged students' emotional, cognitive, and behavioral academic engagement by leveraging book selections centering ethnoracially minoritized youth, critical consciousness raising, and class community building. Our findings offer implications for future research and school-based efforts looking to positively support adolescents' ERI development. Our findings also provide insights regarding the role of the predominately White school context in students' experiences with the unit, namely, the role of the context in some students' occasional disengagement with the material.

The Role of Ethnic-Racial Identity and Self-Esteem in Intergroup Contact Attitudes.

Adolescents' ethnic-racial identity (ERI) exploration, resolution, and affirmation inform their approach and avoidance attitudes toward intergroup contact, but the potential mechanisms through which this occurs have been underexplored. Given the evidence that adolescents with higher ERI exploration, resolution, and affirmation also report higher self-esteem, and self-esteem is theorized to facilitate openness to intergroup contact, the current study explored the role of self-esteem as a mediator of the relation between adolescents' ERI and their intergroup contact attitudes. Participants were 4606 adolescents (Mage = 16.35, SD = 1.16; 37.5% White, 27.1% Black, 20.7% Latinx, 11.7% Asian American, 3% Native American) from the U.S. Southwest and Midwest. The three waves of data were collected between March 2017 and March 2018. Results from longitudinal multigroup path models indicated that across all ethnic-racial groups there were positive direct relations between Wave 1 (W1) ERI resolution and W2 self-esteem (7 months later). In turn, W2 self-esteem was positively related to W3 approach attitudes (12 months later) and negatively related to W3 avoidance attitudes. The relations between ERI resolution and both approach and avoidance attitudes were fully mediated by self-esteem across all ethnic-racial groups. Notably the baseline values (W1) of all mediation and outcome variables (W2, W3) were included, suggesting that ERI resolution at baseline predicted increases in self-esteem, which predicted subsequent increases in approach attitudes and decreases in avoidance attitudes. ERI exploration and affirmation were not significant predictors of later self-esteem or contact attitudes. These findings suggest that of the three dimensions of ERI examined, resolution is the primary driver of the increases in self-esteem that inform adolescents' attitudes towards interaction with ethnic-racial outgroup members.

Assessing Invariance of Universal Ethnic-Racial Identity Measures Among Black Adolescents in the United States.

Black immigrants and their children represent a significant and growing share of the U.S. Black population; however, their experiences of their multifaceted identities are often collapsed into the experiences of multigenerational Black youth. The current study investigates whether generalized ethnic-racial identity measures are equivalent for Black youth with an immigrant parent and Black youth with only U.S.-born parents. Participants were 767 Black adolescents (16.6% immigrant-origin; Mage = 16.28, SD = 1.12) attending diverse high schools in two regions of the U.S. Participants completed the affirmation, exploration, and resolution subscales of the Ethnic Identity Scale-Brief (EIS-B), along with the centrality and public regard subscales of the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity-Teen (MIBI-T). The results indicated that, whereas the EIS-B demonstrated scalar invariance, the MIBI-T demonstrated partial scalar invariance. Accounting for measurement error, immigrant-origin youth reported lower affirmation than multigenerational U.S.-origin youth. Across groups, ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution scores were positively associated with family ethnic socialization; ethnic-racial identity affirmation was positively associated with self-esteem; and ethnic-racial identity public regard was negatively associated with ethnic-racial discrimination, supporting convergent validity. Conversely, centrality was positively associated with discrimination among multigenerational U.S.-origin Black youth, but the relation was not significant among immigrant-origin Black youth. These results fill a methodological gap in the literature, providing researchers with empirical support for considering whether to pool immigrant-origin and multigenerational U.S.-origin Black youth in analyses regarding ethnic-racial identity.

Examining Ethnic-Racial Identity Negative Affect, Centrality, and Intergroup Contact Attitudes Among White Adolescents.

Given persisting systemic inequities, rising white nationalism, and an increasingly diverse ethnic-racial population, there is a need for empirical research on how White youth develop anti-racist competencies during adolescence. Indicators of adolescents' ethnic-racial identity (ERI), such as ERI negative affect and centrality may play an important role in this process and are important to examine specifically for White youth because they involve feelings and beliefs about membership in a group socially perceived to be dominant. In fact, ERI negative affect and centrality may operate as unique mechanisms through which White youth develop attitudes about interacting with different ethnic-racial groups. Accordingly, the current study used a prospective longitudinal design to test whether White youth's (N = 1243; Mage = 16.09, SD = 1.20; 47% female, 53% male) ERI negative affect and centrality predicted their ethnic-racial intergroup contact attitudes across a school year. Multivariate path analysis indicated that higher centrality at the beginning of the school year predicted greater avoidance attitudes later in the school year, adjusting for earlier avoidance attitudes. The interaction between ERI negative affect and centrality was marginally significant in predicting later avoidance and approach attitudes. The findings suggest that ERI may function as a mechanism through which White youth develop intergroup contact attitudes.

Relating Profiles of Ethnic-Racial Identity Process and Content to the Academic and Psychological Adjustment of Black and Latinx Adolescents.

Ethnic-racial identity (i.e., individuals' beliefs about their ethnic-racial group membership and the processes through which they develop those beliefs) is a developmental competency that can promote adolescents' adjustment; however, the extant literature has largely focused on how distinct dimensions of ethnic-racial identity are associated with adjustment (i.e., variable-centered approaches), potentially obscuring a more holistic understanding of this developmental competency. The current study utilized latent profile analysis, a person-centered approach, to examine profiles of ethnic-racial identity among Black (n = 325; Mage = 15.94, SD = 1.14) and Latinx (n = 370; Mage = 16.13, SD = 1.10) adolescents as well as links between profile membership and adjustment. Three ethnic-racial identity profiles emerged: Diffuse & Low Regard (n = 55; lower development, lower self-concept); Diffuse & High Regard (n = 160; lower development, higher self-concept); and Developed & Idealized (n = 477; higher development, higher self-concept). The profile highest in ethnic-racial identity across all indicators reported the highest levels of adjustment. The findings highlight the synergistic benefits of ethnic-racial identity development and positive self-concept for adolescents' psychosocial and academic adjustment.

Adolescents' ethnic-racial centrality moderates effect of school-based intervention on ethnic-racial identity exploration.

Research suggests that the process of adolescents exploring and developing clarity about their ethnic-racial identity (ERI) is an important developmental competency. However, the extent to which individuals view their ERI as central to their overall self-concept (i.e., ERI centrality) informs the degree to which they choose to explore their ERI, potentially moderating ERI development. Utilizing data from a randomized controlled trial of a school-based intervention focused on increasing adolescents' ERI exploration, the current study examined whether the intervention effect was moderated by adolescents' baseline ERI centrality. Study participants (N = 218; Mage = 15.02; 49% female; 63% ethnic-racial minority; 28% free/reduced lunch) attended a high school in the southwest United States. Moderation analyses indicated that adolescents' ERI centrality at baseline (1-week pretest) significantly moderated the intervention's effect on Time-2 ERI exploration (12-week posttest). Further analyses of simple slopes revealed that the intervention produced significant increases in Time-2 ERI exploration (relative to attention control) for adolescents with average and higher (+1 SD) levels of ERI centrality at baseline, but not for those with lower levels of ERI centrality at baseline (-1 SD), which suggests ERI centrality may have encouraged participant engagement with the intervention. Sensitivity analyses accounting for baseline to posttest changes in ERI exploration and examining long-term effects of the intervention on exploration provided additional support for the specificity of this moderated intervention effect to the 12-week posttest. Our findings are consistent with notions from social identity theory as well as previous research that suggests that ERI centrality encourages ERI exploration among adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Contextual Moderators of a School-Based Ethnic-Racial Identity Intervention: The Roles of Family Ethnic Socialization and Ethnic-Racial Background.

Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) formation is a key developmental competency that contributes to adolescents' sense of self and psychosocial adjustment. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) has demonstrated the efficacy of a universal school-based health promotion intervention program to positively influence adolescents' ERI exploration and ERI resolution, compared to an attention control curriculum that was delivered by the same facilitators, had equivalent contact hours, and focused on post-secondary career and educational options. The current study extended prior tests of the RCT to better understand (a) how intervention-based ERI changes unfolded over two phases-temporally proximal pre- to post-test effects and long-term post-test effects across a 1-year follow-up period, and (b) identify for whom the intervention was more effective by testing theorized contextual moderators-baseline family ethnic socialization practices and youth ethnic-racial background (i.e., White majority vs. ethnic-racial minority). Bilinear spline growth models were used to examine longitudinal ERI trajectories in intervention and control groups across four survey assessments (baseline, 12 weeks, 18 weeks, 67 weeks; N = 215; Mage = 15.02; 49.1% female; 62.6% ethnic-racial minority). In support of an additive effect for the role of families in school-based interventions, post-test ERI exploration significantly increased (relative to the control group) to a greater extent for youth with higher (compared to lower) baseline levels of family ethnic socialization. ERI resolution significantly increased from pre- to post-test for ethnic-racial minority youth and also increased across the 1-year follow-up period for White youth in the intervention. These results highlight family ethnic socialization as a developmental asset for school-based ERI interventions and demonstrate differential pathways by which such interventions support ERI development for ethnic-racial minority and majority adolescents.