Few studies examine how the macro context shapes ethnic or racial identity development during early adolescence. This analysis draws on interview data from 40 African American, Chinese American, Dominican American, and European American middle school students (6th through 8th grade) to explore how stereotypes inform adolescents’ ethnic and racial identities. Findings revealed that stereotypes about race and ethnicity intersected with those about gender, sexuality, social class, and/or nationality and these intersecting stereotypes shaped adolescents’ ethnic and racial identities. In addition, adolescents used stereotypes about other ethnic and racial groups as contrasts upon which their own ethnic or racial identities were constructed. Finally, adolescents’ narratives were dominated, particularly for the ethnic minority youth during their 8th-grade interviews, by the desire to avoid or resist becoming an ethnic or racial stereotype. Findings underscore the importance of examining stereotypes as a context of identity development, the ways in which stereotypes intersect in the construction of identity, and resistance in the study of identity development.
AllenL.Bat-ChavaY.AberJ. L.SeidmanE. (2005). Adolescent racial and ethnic identity in context. In DowneyG.EcclesJ.ChatmanC. (Eds.), Navigating the future: Social identity, coping, and life tasks (pp.143-166). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
2.
AllportG. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books Publishing.
3.
AltschulI.OysermanD.BybeeD. (2006). Racial-ethnic identity in mid-adolescence: Content and change as predictors of academic achievement. Child Development, 77, 1155-1169.
4.
Bar-TalD. (1996). Development of social categories and stereotypes in early childhood: The case of “The Arab” concept formation, stereotype, and attitudes by Jewish children in Israel. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 20, 341-370.
5.
BishopJ. H.BishopM.BishopM.GelbwasserL.GreenS.PetersonE.ZuckermanA. (2004). Why we harass nerds and freaks: A formal theory of student culture and norms. Journal of School Health, 74, 235-251.
6.
BrownL. M.GilliganC. (1992). Meeting at the crossroads: Women’s psychology and girl’s development. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.
7.
CarterP. L. (2006). Straddling boundaries: Identity, culture, and school. Sociology of Education, 79, 304-328.
8.
ChavousT. M.BernatD. H.Schmeelk-ConeK.CaldwellC. H.Kohn-WoodL.ZimmermanM. A. (2003). Racial identity and academic attainment among African American adolescents. Child Development, 74, 1076-1090.
9.
ChuaP.FujinoD. C. (2008). Negotiationg new Asian-American masculinities: Attitudes and gender expectations. Journal of Men’s Studies, 7, 391-413.
10.
CokleyK. (2007). Critical issues in the measurement of ethnic and racial identity: A referendum on the state of the field. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54, 224-234.
11.
CrockerJ.MajorB. (1989). Social stigma and self-esteem: The self-protective properties of stigma. Psychological Review, 96, 608-630.
12.
CrockerJ.MajorB.SteeleC. (1998). Social stigma. In GilbertD.FiskeS. T.LindzeyG. (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th ed., Vol. 2, pp. 504-553). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
13.
DelpitL. D. (1995). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York, NY: New Press.
14.
EriksonE. H. (1968). Identity, youth, and crisis. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
15.
FordhamS. (1993). “Those loud Black girls”: (Black) women, silence, gender “passing” in the academy. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 24, 3-32.
16.
FordhamS.OgbuJ. (1986). Black students’ school success: Coping with the burden of “acting White.”Urban Review, 18, 1-31.
17.
FrableD. E. S. (1997). Gender, race, ethnic, sexual, and class identities. Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 139-162.
18.
FuligniA. J.WitkowM.GarcíaC. (2005). Ethnic/racial identity and the academic adjustment of adolescents from Mexican, Chinese, and European backgrounds. Developmental Psychology, 41, 799-811.
19.
García CollC.LambertyG.JenkinsR.Pipes McAdooH.CrnicK.WasikB. H.McAdooH. P. (1996). An integrative model for the study of developmental competencies in minority children. Child Development, 67, 1891-1914.
20.
GrahamS.JuvonenJ. (2002). Ethnicity, peer harassment, and adjustment in middle school: An exploratory study. Journal of Early Adolescence, 22, 173-199.
21.
HillJ. P.LynchM. E. (1983). The intensification of gender-related role expectations during early adolescence. In Brooks-GunnJ.PetersonA. C. (Eds.), Girls at puberty: Biological and psychosocial perspectives (pp. 201-228). New York, NY: Academic Press.
22.
Hooksb. (2004). We real cool: Black men and masculinity. New York, NY: Routledge.
23.
HughesD.RodriguezJ.SmithE. P.JohnsonD. J.StevensonH. C.SpicerP. (2006). Parents’ ethnic/racial-racial socialization practices: A review of research and directions for future study. Developmental Psychology, 42, 747-770.
24.
LeeS. J. (1994). Behind the Model-Minority stereotype: Voices of high and low achieving Asian American students. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 25, 413-429.
25.
LeiJ. L. (2003). (Un)Necessary toughness? Those “loud Black girls” and those “quiet Asian boys.”Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 34, 158-181.
26.
LópezN. (2003). Hopeful girls, troubled boys: Race and gender disparity in urban education. New York, NY: Routledge.
27.
MajorB.O’BrienL. T. (2005). The social psychology of stigma. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 393-421.
28.
McKownC.WeinsteinR. S. (2003). The development and consequences of stereotype consciousness in middle childhood. Child Development, 74, 498-515.
29.
MickelsonR. A. (1990). The attitude-achievement paradox among Black adolescents. Sociology of Education, 63, 44-61.
30.
NasirS. N.CvencekD.O’ConnorK.WischniaS.MeltzoffA. (in press). “They say Chinese people are the best at math”: Elementary- and middle-school students’ explicit and implicit math–race stereotypes. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.
31.
NewmanD. M. (2005). Identities and inequalities: Exploring the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
32.
OgbuJ. U. (1978). Minority education and caste : The American system in crosscultural perspective. New York, NY: Academic Press.
33.
OmiM.WinantH. (1994). Racial formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. New York, NY: Routledge.
34.
OysermanD.GrantL.AgerJ. (1995). A socially contextualized model of African American identity: Possible selves and school persistence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 1216-1232.
35.
PahlK.WayN. (2006). Longitudinal trajectories of ethnic identity among urban Black and Latino adolescents. Child Development, 77, 1403-1415.
36.
PascoeC. J. (2007). Dude, you’re a fag: Masculinity and sexuality in high school. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
37.
PerryP. (2001). White means never having to say you’re ethnic/racial: White youth and the construction of “cultureless” identity. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 30, 56-91.
38.
PhinneyJ. S. (1989). Stages of ethnic identity development in minority group adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 9, 34-49.
39.
PhinneyJ. S. (1996). Understanding ethnic diversity: The role of ethnic identity. American Behavioral Scientist, 40, 143-152.
40.
PhinneyJ. S.CantuC. L.KurtzD. A. (1997). Ethnic/racial and American identity as predictors of self-esteem among African American, Latino, and White adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 26, 165-185.
41.
PhinneyJ. S.OngA. D. (2007). Conceptualization and measurement of ethnic/racial identity: Current status and future directions. Journal of Counseling Psychology. Special Issue: Racial and ethnic/racial identity theory, measurement, and research in counseling psychology: Present status and future directions, 54, 271-281.
42.
PykeK.DangT. (2003). “FOB” and “whitewashed”: Identity and internalized racism among second generation Asian Americans. Qualitative Sociology, 26, 147-172.
43.
QuintanaS. M. (2007). Racial and ethnic identity: Developmental perspectives and research. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54, 259-270.
44.
QuintanaS. M.McKownC. (2008). Introduction: Race, racism, and the developing child. In QuintanaS. M.McKownC. (Eds.), Handbook of race, racism, and the developing child (pp. 1-15). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
45.
ReisO.YounissJ. (2004). Patterns in identity change and development in relationships with mothers and friends. Journal of Adolescent Research, 19, 31-44.
46.
Rivas-DrakeD.HughesD.WayN. (2009). A preliminary analysis of associations among ethnic/racial racial socialization, ethnic/racial discrimination, and ethnic/racial identity among urban sixth graders. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 19, 558-584.
47.
RumbautR. G. (2005). Sites of belonging: Acculturation, discrimination, and ethnic/racial identity among children of immigrants. In WeisnerT. S. (Ed.), Discovering successful pathways in children’s development: Mixed methods in the study of childhood and family life (pp. 111-162). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
48.
SchachterE. P.VenturaJ. J. (2008). Identity agents: Parents as active and reflective participants in their children’s identity formation. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 18, 449-476.
49.
SeatonE. K.ScotthamK. M.SellersR. M. (2006). The status model of racial identity development in African American adolescents: Evidence of structure, trajectories, and well-being. Child Development, 77, 1416-1426.
50.
SellersR. M.SheltonJ. N. (2003). The role of racial identity in perceived racial discrimination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1079-1092.
51.
ShekY. L. (2006). Asian American masculinity: A review of the literature. Journal of Men’s Studies, 14, 379-391.
52.
ShieldsS. A. (2008). Gender: An intersectionality perspective. Sex Roles, 59, 301-311.
53.
SpencerM. B. (1995). Old and new theorizing about African-American youth: A phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory. In TaylorR. L. (Ed.), Black youth: Perspectives on their status in the United States (pp. 37-69). Westport, CT: Praeger.
54.
SpencerM. B.DupreeD.HartmannT. (1997). A phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST): A self-organization perspective in context. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 817-833.
55.
StagnorC.SchallerM. (1996). Stereotypes as individual and collective representations. In MacraeC. N.StagnorC.HewstoneM. (Eds.), Stereotypes and stereotyping (pp. 3-37). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
56.
SteeleC. M. (1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. American Psychologist, 52, 613-629.
57.
SteeleC. M.AronsonJ. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797-811.
58.
StevensonH. C. (1997). Missed, dissed, and pissed: Making meaning of neighborhood risk, fear and anger management in urban Black youth. Cultural Diversity and Mental Health, 3, 37-52.
59.
StevensonH. C. (2004). Boys in men’s clothing: Racial socialization and neighborhood safety as buffers to hypervulnerability in African American adolescent males. In WayN.ChuJ. Y. (Eds.), Adolescent boys: Exploring diverse cultures of boyhood (pp. 59-77). New York, NY: New York University Press.
60.
StraussA.CorbinJ. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
61.
Suárez-OrozcoC. (2004). Formulating identity in a globalized world. In Suárez-OrozcoM. M.Qin-HilliardD. B. (Eds.), Globalization: Culture and education in the new millennium (pp. 173-202). Berkeley: University of California Press.
62.
SyedM.AzmitiaM. (2008). A narrative approach to ethnic identity in emerging adulthood: Bringing life to the identity status model. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1012-1027.
63.
TajfelH.TurnerJ. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In WorchelS.AustinW. (Eds.), Psychology of inter-group relations (pp. 7-24). Chicago, IL: Nelson Hall.
64.
TatumB. D. (1997). “Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?”: And other conversations about race. New York, NY: Basic Books.
65.
Umaña-TaylorA. J.DiversiM.FineM. A. (2002). Ethnic identity and self-esteem of Latino adolescents: Distinctions among the Latino populations. Journal of Adolescent Research, 17, 303-327.
66.
Umaña-TaylorA. J.BhanotR.ShinN. (2006). Ethnic identity formation during adolescence: The critical role of families. Journal of Family Issues, 27, 390-414.
67.
von HippelW.HawkinsC.SchoolerJ. W. (2001). Stereotype distinctiveness: How counterstereotype behavior shapes the self-concept. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 193-205.
68.
WatersM. (1996). The intersection of gender, race, and ethnicity in identity development of Caribbean American teens. In Ross LeadbeaterB. J.WayN. (Eds.), Urban girls: Resisting, creating identities (pp. 65-81). New York, NY: New York University Press.
69.
WayN. (1998). Everyday courage: The lives and stories of urban teenagers. New York, NY: New York University Press.
70.
WayN.SantosC.NiwaE. Y.Kim-GerveyC. (2008). To be or not to be: An exploration of ethnic/racial identity development in context. In AzmitiaM.SyedM.RadmacherK. (Eds.), The intersections of personal and social identities: New directions for child and adolescent development (pp. 61-78). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
71.
WayN. (2011). Deep secrets: Boys’ friendships and the crisis for connection. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
72.
WillisP. (1977). Learning to labor: How working class kids get working class jobs. New York, NY: Columbia University Press
73.
YipT.SeatonE. K.SellersR. M. (2006). African American racial identity across the lifespan: Identity status, identity content, and depressive symptoms. Child Development, 77, 1504-151.
