Emerging ethnic identity and interethnic group social preferences in middle childhood: Findings from the Children of Immigrants Development in Context (CIDC) study

This study characterizes several aspects of emerging ethnic identity in childhood and its associations with interethnic group social preferences. Understanding these processes is important, as early interethnic group social practices may form a foundation for later interethnic group attitudes and be...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of behavioral development 2007-09, Vol.31 (5), p.501-513
Main Authors: Marks, Amy Kerivan, Szalacha, Laura A., Lamarre, Meaghan, Boyd, Michelle J., García Coll, Cynthia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescence
Adolescents
Age Differences
Asian Americans
Child development
Childhood
Children
Citizenship
Cultural heritage
Cultural identity
Ethnic groups
Ethnic identity
Ethnicity
Group identity
Hispanic Americans
Identity formation
Immigrants
Individual Development
Intergroup Relations
Longitudinal Studies
Older children
Preferences
Second generation
Self esteem
Social groups
Social identity
United States (Northeast)
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Summary:This study characterizes several aspects of emerging ethnic identity in childhood and its associations with interethnic group social preferences. Understanding these processes is important, as early interethnic group social practices may form a foundation for later interethnic group attitudes and behaviors in adolescence. Children of Cambodian, Dominican, and Portuguese heritage (aged 6—12 years) consistently and accurately identified with labels of their family's nationality of origin across the three study years, and reported strong ethnic pride. In support of existing developmental models of ethnic identity in adolescence, older children demonstrated greater ethnic identity exploration than younger children. Importantly, for second-generation children, a positive sense of ethnic identity was not only associated with ingroup social preferences, but also ethnic outgroup social preferences. Findings are discussed with regard to existing models of ethnic identity development.
ISSN:0165-0254
1464-0651
DOI:10.1177/0165025407081462