Biracial and multiracial identity development

Racial identity development defines an individual's attitudes about self-identity, and directly affects the individual's attitudes about other individuals both within their racial group(s) and others. Racial identity development often requires individuals to interact with concepts of inequality and racism that shape racial understandings in the US. Research on biracial and multiracial identity development has been influenced by previous research on race. Most of this initial research is focused on black racial identity development (Cross, 1971) and minority identity development (Morten and Atkinson, 1983). Like other identities, mixed race people have not been easily accepted in the United States. Numerous laws and practices prohibited interracial sex, marriage, and therefore, mixed race children. Below are some landmark moments in mixed race history. Miscegenation laws Anti-miscegenation laws or miscegenation laws enforced racial segregation through marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage. Certain communities also prohibit having sexual intercourse with a person of another race. As a result of the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, these laws have since been changed in all U.S. states - interracial marriage is permitted. The last states to change these laws were South Carolina and Alabama. South Carolina made this change in 1998 and in 2000, Alabama became the last state in the United States to legalize interracial marriage. Biracial and multiracial categorization "One Drop Rule" The one-drop rule is a historical social and legal principle of racial classification in the United States. The one drop rule asserts that any person with one ancestor of African ancestry is considered to be Black. This idea was influenced by the concept of "white purity" and concerns of those "tainted" with black ancestry passing as white in the U.S's deeply segregated south. In this time, classification as Black rather than mulatto or mixed became prevalent. The "One Drop Rule" was used as a way to make people of color, especially multiracial Americans feel even more inferior and confused and was put into effect in the 1920s. No other country in the world at the time had thought of or implemented such a discriminatory and specific rule on its citizens The One Drop Rule in a way was taking the Jim Crow Law to a new extreme level to make sure it stayed in power and was used as another extreme measure of social classification. Eventually, biracial and multiracial individuals challenged this assumption and created a new perspective of biracial identity and included the "biracial" option on the census. Hypodescent The concept of hypodescent refers to the automatic assignment of children of a mixed union between different socioeconomic or ethnic groups to the group with the lower status. This is especially prevalent in the United States where the "one drop rule is still upheld as Whites were a historically dominant social group. People of mixed race ancestry would be categorized as the nonwhite race using this concept. Even in mixed race offspring with no white parent, the racist "one drop rule" places the nonblack racial group as dominant so that the offspring is socially considered black. Phenotype A way of classifying someone by looking at their physical appearances, like facial features, skull shape, hair texture etc. and choosing their race based on what they look like. The U.S. Census Before 2000 United States census respondents were only able to select one race when submitting census data. This means that the census contained no statistical information regarding particular racial mixes and their frequency in the U.S. before this time. == Demographics ==

The population of biracial and multiracial people in the U.S. is growing. A comparison of data from the 2000 and 2010 United States census indicates an overall population increase in individuals identifying with two or more races from 6.8 million people to 9 million people (US Census Data, 2010). In examining specific race combinations, the data showed that, "people who reported White as well as Black or African American—a population that grew by over one million people, increasing by 134 percent—and people who reported White as well as Asian—a population that grew by about three-quarters of a million people, increasing by 87 percent" (US Census Data, 2010). In 2004, one in 40 persons in the United States self-identified as a multiracial, and by the year 2050, it is projected that as many as one in five Americans will claim a Multiracial background, and in turn, a Multiracial or Biracial identity (Lee & Bean, 2004). == Early theories ==

When initial racial identity development research is applied to biracial and multiracial people, there are limitations, as they fail to recognize variance in developmental experiences that occur within racial groups (Gibbs, 1987). This research assumes that individuals would choose to identify with, or choose to reject, one racial group over another dependent on life stage. Also, initial racial identity development research does not address real-life resolutions for people upholding multiple racial group identities (Poston, 1990). These assumptions display the need for biracial and multiracial identity development that focuses on the unique aspects of the experience of biracial and multiracial identity development. These theories can be categorized under the following approaches: problem, equivalent, variant, and ecological. Problem Approach This approach predicts negative outcomes of having multiracial identity. Originating from the Jim Crow era, this theoretical angle focuses on the deficits and problems that are a result of multiracial identities, concluding multiracial individuals are more often victims of rejection, isolation, stigmatization even from both the identities they represent. As a result, multiracial individuals often deal with negative outcomes such as an inferiority complex, hypersensitivity, and moodiness due to their experiences with society. Stonequist's Marginal Person Model American sociologist, Everett Stonequist was the first to publish research about the identity development of biracial individuals. His book, The Marginal Man: A Study in Personality and Culture Conflict (1937) discusses pathology in Black families through comparison of Black minority samples to White majority samples. Stonequist claimed that developing a biracial identity is a marginal experience, in which biracial people belong in two worlds and none all at the same time. That they experience uncertainty and ambiguity, which can worsen problems people face identifying with their own racial groups and others (Gibbs, 1987). The model fails to describe the experience of biracial people that exhibit characteristics of both races without conflict or feelings of marginality (Poston, 1990). == Modern theories ==

To address the limitations of Stonequist's Marginal Person Model, researchers have expanded biracial identity development research based on relevant and current understandings of biracial people. Most concepts of biracial identity development highlight the need for racial identity development across the lifespan. This type of development recognizes that identity is no more static a cultural entity than any other and that this fluidity of identity is shaped by the individual's social circumstances and capital (Hall, 2001). The equivalent approach was derived from Erikson's (1968) ego-identity formation model, which explains a stable identity is formed through a process of "exploratory and experimental stages" that eventually result in a racial identity. Poston proposed the first model for the development of a healthy biracial and multiracial identity in 1990. concept of reference group orientation (RGO), which includes constructions of racial identity, esteem, and ideology. Poston's model divided the biracial and multiracial identity development process into five distinct stages: • Personal Identity: young children's sense of self and personal identity is not linked to a racial or ethnic group. address the phenomenological experience of otherness in a biracial context and introduced a new identity group: multiracial. Kich's Conceptualization of Biracial Identity Development Miville, Constantine, Baysden and So-Lloyd (2005) discussed the following three-stage and six-stage models that biracial individuals experience. Kich's Conceptualization of Biracial Identity Development (1992) focuses on the transition from straying away from the pressures of monoracial self-identity to a stronger desire of biracial self-identity as one's age progresses. Kich's model is divided into three stages during biracial development: • Stage 1 (3–10 years old): How one's own feelings and what external feelings are differs. • Multiple Monoracial Identities: An individual identifies with two or more racial categories that make up their heritage background. Within a given time and place, both personal and contextual factors influence how an individual chooses to identify. Forty-eight percent of the participants also self-identified with this identity pattern. Commonalities of Racial Identity Development Theories The commonalities of these theories characterize multi-racial identity development as marked struggle especially in early development. Most approaches reserve the ages between 3–10 years old to having confusion and outside confrontation that continue well even to adult years of a biracial individual. Some of these struggles include inconsistent identification within both private and public spaces, justifying identity choices, pressure to identify with one race, lack of role models, conflicting messages, and double rejection from both dominant and minority racial groups. These hardships are various and ultimately impact maturity and adjustment to society depending on the environment in which the child is raised and the interactions they had. Situational Identity/ Race Switching For many multiracial individuals, there is a lot of bouncing around between racial categories. Hitlin, Brown, and Elder Jr. (2006) studies concluded that people who identified as biracial are more likely to change how they identify than people who identified with one race their whole life. Biracial people seem to be very fluid in how they identify, but there are certain factors that make it more likely for them to identify a certain way. People who grew up with a higher social and economic status were less likely to race switch than someone who grew up in a lower status. Being around a racially charged environment can also drastically alter how much a multi-racial individual race switches. Sanchez, Shih & Garcia (2009) concluded in a study that people who were more fluid with their racial identification had worse mental health, not necessarily due to their own identity crisis but due to outsiders pressure to classify the individual. This can cause lots of stress and frustration for the multiracial individual affecting their mental health. == Racial Discrimination and Psychological Adjustment ==

Racial Discrimination Racial Discrimination has affected the mental health of many multiracial individuals. Coleman and Carter (2007) concluded biracial people particularly, Black/White college students felt the need to identify as one race. A similar study done, Townsend, Markus, and Bergsieker (2009) saw that multiracial college students who were indicated to pick just one race on demographic questions ended up having less motivation and less self-esteem in comparison with other students who were allowed to choose more than one race. Since in these studies there were small study groups, the evidence does show discrimination can affect the mental health of multiracial individuals. Students reported their parents’ racial categories to determine classification of racial group membership, which included a variety of monoracial and biracial identities. Findings suggest that there is a positive correlation between self-esteem and ethnic identity. Although Biracial participants did not show higher self-esteem than Black participants, they did show higher self-esteem than Asian participants. Studies show that although Biracial adolescents display less resilience to racism and have a smaller community support than Black adolescents, being bicultural introduces “a broader base of social support, more positive attitudes toward both cultures, and a strong sense of personal identity and efficacy,” which results in high self-esteem (LaFromboise, Coleman & Gerton, 1993). LaFromboise, Coleman and Gerton use bicultural efficacy to describe an individual's confidence in his/her capability to live within two cultural groups sufficiently without altering his/her own self-identification (1993). ==References==