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Biracial and multiracial identity development

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:

1.     Stage 1 (3-10 years old): How one’s own feelings and what external feelings are differs  

2.     Stage 2 (8 years old-young adulthood): Challenges revolve around feeling accepted by oneself and by others

3.     Stage 3 (Late adolescence/young adulthood): Completely integrates a biracial and bicultural identity

Kerwin and Ponterotto’s Model of Biracial Identity Development

Kerwin and Ponterotto’s Model of Biracial Identity Development (1995) addresses awareness in racial identity through developmental stages based on age. This model recognizes that racial identity varies between public and private environments and is altered by different factors. Kerwin and Ponterotto state that exclusion may not only be experienced by White individuals, but also individuals of color (Miville, Constantine, Baysden & So-Lloyd, 2005).

1.    Preschool (0-5 years old): Begins to observe differences and similarities in how they look. Levels of eagerness to discuss issues in regard to race amongst parents are apparent.

2.    Entry to School: As involvements increase with certain groups, they are influenced with the idea of identifying with a monoracial label.

3.    Preadolescence: Becomes more cognizant of how social groups are represented by certain characteristics such as skin tone, religion and ethnicity. Sensitivity to race differs depending on certain environmental factors such as being immersed in a monocultural or diverse context.    

4.    Adolescence: Feelings of pressure heighten to identify with the racial group that is associated with the parent of color.  

5.    College/Young Adulthood: Continues to engage in a monoracial group and subtly realizes situations involved race-related remarks.

6.    Adulthood: Ongoing discovery on culture and race, determining self-perceptions of different identities and has stronger resilience for diversified cultural contexts.

Studies that used Kich’s Conceptualization of Biracial Identity Development and Kerwin and Ponterotto’s Model of Biracial Identity Development Models

In Miville, Constantine, Baysden and So-Lloyd’s (2005) study of racial identity themes of Multiracial people, ten self-identified multiracial individuals participated in a qualitative inquiry. The researchers believed that if they have strongly identified as being Multiracial, they will have stories to share that will support their racial identity development. Participants were interviewed for two hours about “experiences and memories of growing up, a time or an incident in which the individual was first aware of his or her racial group memberships, their identity development process, along with important people or events that assisted in this process, responses given to others when asked about racial or ethnic group memberships and the stability of these responses over time, general observations about monoracial and multiracial people, and joys and hardships experienced with regard to being multiracial” (Miville, Constantine, Baysden & So-Lloyd, 2005, p. 509). Amongst the participants, racial identity development had four fundamental themes: racist encounters, the “chameleon” experience, labels on racial identity and identity development in contexts such as locations, time periods and crucial individuals. Biracial identity models characterize multiracial individuals’ racial identity developments. Findings suggest that encounters of racism and peer pressures to identify to a single racial group during preadolescence and adolescence occurs, similar to stages three and four of Kerwin and Ponterotto’s theory. Participants also reported experiences of first needing to classify with just one racial group because of surrounding pressures but eventually self-identified as biracial or multiracial on individual terms. This follows Kich’s theory which addresses the transition from acceptance struggles in stage two to confidently integrating to biracial or multiracial identity in stage three. (Miville, Constantine, Baysden & So-Lloyd, 2005).

On the contrary, biracial adolescents who identify as part White may seem integrated but actually may not identify with any social group. Tokenism and dating are common issues for biracial adolescents and their identity. Tokenism is a practice that spotlights an individual to be the minority representative (Renn & Shang, 2008).

An ecological approach also suggests that entitling any racial identity over another regardless of being multiracial, racial or monoracial will repeat the issues of other identity models (Mawhinney & Petchauer, 2013).

A quasi-experimental study of 4,766 high school students on ethnic identity development and mental health outcomes demonstrated multiracial adolescents with significantly higher depressive symptoms than Caucasian and African American adolescents. In this study, anxiety and depression were measured for mental health. Multiracial adolescents reported similar levels of anxiety as Caucasian adolescents, but much higher levels of anxiety than African American adolescents. The findings of this study support several models that illustrate the intricacies of multiracial individuals’ identity developments. The complexity of racial identity development during the adolescent and young adulthood stages may make multiracial individuals more susceptible to mental health issues (Fisher, Reynolds, Hsu, Barnes & Tyler, 2014).

Nonetheless, according to the study of racial identity themes of Multiracial people mentioned above, participants who self-identified as biracial and/or multiracial developed the “Chameleon” experience which allows for integration with multiple cultural or racial groups rather than just picking one group. The “Chameleon” experience includes having flexible social boundaries, social attitudes and a universal-diverse orientation. A universal-diverse orientation focuses on the acceptance of one’s own identity while accepting differences and similarities of others’ identity decisions. This strategy allows for individuals to feel integrated into both groups to some extent, but there is a realization that they are never fully integrated to either group. Instead of discovering identity development issues, this study found how biracial and multiracial identify development can strengthen one’s well-being (Miville, Constantine, Baysden & So-Lloyd, 2005).

However, multiracial individuals who are able to identify themselves accurately during their adolescent development have higher levels of efficacy, self-esteem and lower stereotype vulnerability. A study with 3,282 students from three high schools looked at the correlation between ethnic and racial identity and self-esteem levels (Bracey, Bámaca & Umaña, 2004). 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 higher 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).

Culturally Relevant Teaching

• Display a large visual of all individuals that are involved in a school (teachers, nurse, school counselors, janitors, children, bus drivers, vice principals, etc.) and a caption that encompasses the saying, “The Beauty of All People” (Wardle, 1992).
• Have discussions amongst students about individual differences. Recognize their uncertainty and fear of identities they are not familiar with. Promote the importance of their curiosity and answer any questions they have about different identities. Revolve the discussion not only around physical characteristics of all of the students and their families, but also family types. Invite any families who are available to come to class for students to see and learn about differences (Wardle, 1992).
• Be cognizant of the tourist approach when developing a culturally competent curriculum. For example, do not try to revolve lessons about “Indians” only during Thanksgiving or Latinx only during Cinco de Mayo (Wardle, 1992).