Teachers’ Implementation of the Identity Project Is Associated With Increases in U.S. High School Students’ Ethnic-Racial Identity Exploration

• Published in: Journal of youth and adolescence 2024-11, Vol.53 (11), p.2519-2533
• Main Authors: Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J., Sladek, Michael R., Safa, M. Dalal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent development; Adolescents; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child and School Psychology; Clinical Psychology; Empirical Research; Ethnic identity; Ethnicity; Ethnicity - psychology; Female; Gender identity; Health Psychology; High School Students; History of Psychology; Humans; Identity formation; Immigrants; Law and Psychology; Male; Pretests Posttests; Psychology; Racial Groups - psychology; Racial Identification; Racial identity; Racial socialization; School Teachers - psychology; Schools; Secondary school students; Social Identification; Students - psychology; Teachers; United States
• ISSN: 0047-2891; 1573-6601; 1573-6601
• DOI: 10.1007/s10964-024-01955-2

Ethnic-racial identity formation has significant consequences for positive youth development. Existing findings support the efficacy of the Identity Project , a school-based ethnic-racial identity intervention, when delivered by researchers; however, effectiveness of the program when delivered by teachers is unknown. This study examined changes in adolescents’ ( N  = 180; 42.2% male, 50.6% female, 6.7% another gender identity; M age  = 14.11, SD  = 0.33; 38.3% Latinx, 33.9% White, 15.0% Black, 9.4% Asian American, 3.3% another ethnoracial background) ethnic-racial identity exploration as a function of their teachers’ implementation of the Identity Project . Findings indicated that ethnic-racial identity exploration significantly increased from pretest to posttest, and this did not vary based on familial ethnic-racial socialization, student-teacher ethnoracial match/mismatch, gender, immigrant status, or ethnoracial background. This study provides preliminary evidence that U.S. educators can be trained to efficaciously implement the Identity Project with high school students and, furthermore, that this approach to program dissemination may not only facilitate scale-up but also result in greater gains for adolescents relative to research-led implementations.