Contexts of Adolescent Ethnic-Racial Identity Development: A Mixed Methods Approach

Sladek, Michael R, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Adriana Uma?a-Taylor at Harvard University, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist examining everyday contextual influences that inform adolescent ethnic-racial identity (ERI) development. Based on recent projections, no single majority ethnic-racial group will exist in the U.S. by 2044 (Colby & Ortman, 2014). More than half of U.S. public school students are currently from ethnic-racial minority groups (NCES, 2018). These rapid demographic changes will continue to prompt more frequent daily interactions between youth who are different from one another with respect to race and ethnic heritage. Better understanding how diverse youth explore and gain a sense of clarity about ethnicity and race in the context of U.S. society is vital to broaden participation for underrepresented groups. Exploring and achieving clarity regarding one?s ERI is a normative developmental process that positively contributes to adolescents? academic and psychosocial adjustment (Uma?a-Taylor et al., 2014), and serves protective functions for minority youth as a buffer against the negative consequences of discrimination (Yip et al., 2019). Most available research on adolescent ERI has used traditional survey methods, limiting a more integrated understanding of how everyday contextual influences in adolescents? daily lives inform ERI development. The overall goal of this project, Contexts of Adolescent Ethnic-Racial Identity Development: A Mixed Methods Approach, is to advance a mixed methods approach to culturally-informed developmental science by offering unique insights into diverse adolescents? routine ethnic-race-related interactions with teachers, peers, and family in daily life. This two-part multi-method study focuses on (1) exploring contextual factors that inform ERI development by learning from group discussions with adolescents of different ethnic-racial backgrounds, and (2) testing how these contextual factors may modify the effectiveness of an ERI-focused school-based intervention program (the Identity Project; Uma?a-Taylor et al., 2018). Secondary analyses of previously collected qualitative data (Uma?a-Taylor & Douglass, 2017) will involve coding ERI-related focus group discussions between adolescents of the same ethnic-racial group, including Asian, Black, Latinx, and White youth. Primary data collection will include twice weekly daily diary surveys as a novel contribution to an ongoing randomized controlled trial of the Identity Project intervention, with the goal of more closely examining daily interactions between students and their teachers, peers, and family as they experience and engage with the intervention content. The study will inform understanding of how such daily experiences can enhance and/or hinder existing and future interventions. Exploring for whom and under what conditions interventions work best is of vital importance to tailor intervention strategies for youth who need it most in the diversifying U.S. school system. In turn, including school-based structured supports for ERI development during the developmental period of adolescence will contribute to broadening participation for historically underrepresented groups in the social sciences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.